Regulators

Rapid-acting antidepressants face a slow journey to wider use

Evidence is mounting for the effectiveness of rapid-acting antidepressants for treatment-resistant depression — but will their use ever take off in the NHS?…

GPhC facing biggest ever backlog of open fitness-to-practise cases at initial assessment stage

Council papers said there were more than 700 open initial assessment fitness-to-practise cases.…

NICE recommends drug treatment for long-term insomnia

Daridorexant has been recommended as a second-line treatment for long-term insomnia by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.…

PJ view: Post-registration support for newly qualified pharmacists from 2026 must be a collaborative endeavour

Joined up working across Great Britain — and across pharmacy sectors — is vital to ensuring newly trained pharmacists get the support they need as independent prescribers from day one.…

Pharmacist given warning as committee in second fitness-to-practise case rules remarks were antisemitic

The General Pharmaceutical Council’s fitness-to-practise committee issued Nazim Hussain Ali with a warning for a second time over remarks he made at an Al Quds Day rally, after its initial decision was quashed by the High Court.…

Bupropion to be made available in the UK again from December 2023, says manufacturer

Exclusive: GSK has told The Pharmaceutical Journal that bupropion tablets will be available “across the EU and Europe on or before the end of December 2023”.…

Pharmacists back calls for reduced registration fees for those on lower incomes

More than 84% of respondents to a survey by the Pharmacists' Defence Association backed calls for General Pharmaceutical Council registrants on lower incomes to pay a reduced fee.…

RPS says codeine linctus should be made a prescription-only medicine, in response to MHRA consultation

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society says reclassification will make it easier to monitor codeine linctus use, because it will be recorded in GP systems.…

Summer registration assessment pass rate is 77%, GPhC figures show

The pass rate for the June 2023 sitting of the registration assessment is a slight fall on that of the previous year.…

MHRA issues drug safety warning on hyoscine bromide patches

The regulator told The Pharmaceutical Journal that there had been seven yellow card reports of anticholinergic syndrome as a side effect of hyoscine hydrobromide patches.…