Patient access schemes

Plans to expand NHS medicine access scheme

The government is promising quicker access to new breakthrough medicines as part of improvements to the Accelerated Access Collaborative.…

GP receptionists referring patients to pharmacies in £100k pilot scheme

Community pharmacies in South Tyneside stand to receive over £100,000 through a scheme that will refer patients to community pharmacists by their local GP surgery.…

EMA hosts meeting to speed up patient access to new drugs

Easier access to medicines for EU citizens has taken a step forward after a first meeting of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and European Union healthcare payers.…

UK lags behind European neighbours in healthcare index because of performance on cancer

The UK lags behind some of its neighbours in terms of quality of and access to healthcare, results from a study published in The Lancet [1] have revealed. Researchers used a novel index to compare the quality and accessibility of healthcare of 195 countries from 1990 to 2015…

NHS drug spending rises by 8% to £15.5bn in England

The costs of NHS medicines prescribed in hospital and in the community in England rose by 7.8% between 2013–2014 and 2014–2015. …

Government ponders new access models for innovative drugs

Commercial deals with pharmaceutical companies are being proposed to speed up NHS patients’ access to innovative drugs before evidence shows their long-term benefit.…

The Pharmaceutical Journal’s panel discussion: Medicines, innovation and the value of medicine

Key opinion leaders were brought together to debate the controversial topic of highly priced medicines at The Pharmaceutical Journal’s panel discussion on 14 September 2015 at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s annual conference in Birmingham.…

Melanoma drug pembrolizumab gets NICE backing

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommends in draft guidance that pembrolizumab (Keytruda) be made available on the NHS for the treatment of some patients with advanced melanoma. …

Interferon beta and glatiramer acetate are cost-effective treatments for multiple sclerosis

Treatment with interferon beta or glatiramer acetate reduces disability progression by 24-40% in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, according to a new study.…

More UK patients will now be eligible for two costly hepatitis C treatments

Sofosbuvir has received the green light from NICE but will not be available to patients until August 2015, while simeprevir will only be accessible through a patient access scheme.…