Outer space and the effect of radiation on drugsI very much enjoyed reading the informative feature 'Drugs in space: the pharmacy orbiting the Earth' by Megan Tatum in the July 2020 issue of The Pharmaceutical Journal. In view of my studies on the effects of gamma and other ionising radiations on pharmaceuticals essentially for sterilisation …
Patients taking placebo and statins experience similar side effects Patients experience similar side effects taking a placebo as they do taking a statin, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine has suggested.…
Generic drug price increases of up to 1,700% have cost the NHS £76m An investigation by The Pharmaceutical Journal reveals that drug tariff prices for 33 generic “Category A” medicines were found to have more than doubled between July 2018 and October 2020.…
Increasing injectable medicines ten-fold could release time equivalent to 4,000 extra nurses, report says The production of injectable medicines in England could be increased from the current 3.4 million individual doses to more than 40 million per year.…
Diabetes: mental health considerations in adults Pharmacists can contribute to the psychological and emotional wellbeing of people living with diabetes by helping to identify those who have mental wellbeing needs, optimising treatment and minimising risk factors.…
Interchangeability of biosimilars: a global perspective for pharmacists The first innovator biologic drug was introduced around 40 years ago in the early 1980s. This article provides pharmacists with an overview of the pivotal concepts of biosimilar interchangeability with innovator biologics.…
Reducing asthma medication does not worsen outcomes but could save money, study suggests Stepping down asthma medication does not adversely affect patient outcomes and could save millions of pounds in medicines costs, a study in PLoS Medicine has found.…
Inhaler recycling scheme that cut carbon emissions equivalent to more than 8,500 cars is scrapped A scheme to recycle respiratory inhalers, which has cut carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to taking around 8,600 cars off UK roads, is ending.…
Blue, brown and now green The ‘NHS long-term plan’ has called for a shift towards inhalers with a lower carbon footprint.…
Salbutamol inhaler prescribing jumped 60% at start of COVID-19 pandemic The number of some inhalers prescribed by GPs in England increased by 63% between February 2020 and March 2020, according to data analysed by The Pharmaceutical Journal.…
