Pharmaceutical preparations

Ministers need a new approach to generic medicines

Despite underpinning the fight against COVID-19, generic and biosimilar medicines do not get the attention they deserve from the UK government.…

How switching a handful of patients’ inhalers saved nearly 5,000kgCO2e

While switching inhalers may not be for everyone, reviewing patients who may benefit from a lower carbon device could have an enormous impact.…

Some patients switched to ‘greener’ inhalers without consultation, say experts

Exclusive: Experts warn that non-consented inhaler switches pose risks to patients' health and advise physicians to carry out individual inhaler checks to avoid this.…

Spike in price concessions prompts concern over generic medicine supply issues

Exclusive: As the number of price concessions for generic drugs soared in January 2022, the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committees has raised concerns with the government over supply issues.…

Switches to dry powder inhalers could halve carbon footprint, study results suggest

Patients switched to a dry powder inhaler produced 132kg less annual carbon dioxide equivalent than those using metred-dose inhalers, and had better asthma control.…

Minister urged to block takeover of inhaler manufacturer by tobacco firm

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has written to the government to express its concerns around the proposed takeover of inhaler manufacturer Vectura by tobacco company Philip Morris International.…

Learnings from observing a Chinese medicine clinic during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic

The views expressed in this letter are those of the author’s. If you would like to submit a letter to The Pharmaceutical Journal, please click here. When the COVID-19 epidemic raged around the world, I had the opportunity to record the experience from a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) clini…

Outer space and the effect of radiation on drugs

I 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.…