Compassionate medicine schemes help patients with cancer live better and for longer — why are they not more widely used?

Use of unlicensed or off-label medicines for patients with cancer can extend survival or improve quality of life, but access remains patchy.…

Independent prescribing pharmacist numbers total 15,000, increasing by two-thirds in two years 

Exclusive: There were 14,635 independent prescribers on the pharmacy register in August 2022, compared with 8,806 independent prescribers in May 2020.…

Oriel numeracy test: what pharmacy students need to know

The Oriel numeracy test is designed to examine your ability to solve practice-based calculations. Here is what you need to consider before and during this assessment.…

MHRA seeking views on the safety of sodium valproate prescribing

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency's findings will inform discussions of the Commission on Human Medicines.…

Victoria Steele: ‘There are simply not enough pharmacists working in community pharmacy’

LloydsPharmacy’s superintendent pharmacist sets out her thoughts on how to make community pharmacy an attractive place to work in a post-pandemic NHS.…

Thousands receive COVID-19 monoclonal antibody despite efficacy concerns

Exclusive: Some experts have warned that the continued use of sotrovimab is “inappropriate”, owing to its low efficacy against the dominant BA.2 variant in the UK.…

PANORAMIC trial to enlist 17,500 more patients as researchers add second COVID-19 antiviral

The addition of Paxlovid to the PANORAMIC trial will almost double the number of participants.…

More than 1,000 patients stopped taking antidepressants after introduction of local deprescribing guidelines

Exclusive: Guidelines published in 2021 have helped Sunderland Clinical Commissioning Group move from having the fifth highest antidepressant prescribing rate in the country to the eighth highest.…

Arthritis drug may reduce mortality in hospitalised COVID-19 patients

Data from more than 8,000 hospitalised patients with severe COVID-19 show that baricitinib, given in addition to usual care, reduced the risk of invasive mechanical ventilation or death.…