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Poor quality medicines pose a danger to patients

The Medicines Quality Database aims to tackle the problem of substandard medicines.…

Paediatric formulations of tuberculosis drugs are urgently needed as the disease re-emerges

Unless there are new paediatric formulations of drugs for tuberculosis, it is likely that multidrug resistant strains of the disease will develop.…

Supply shortages of antiretrovirals can have devastating consequences for patients

Medication non-adherence is not always within the patient’s control. Poor supply chain management and natural or other disasters can threaten access as well.…

Science is the backbone of the pharmacy profession

The Pharmacy Schools Council (PhSC) was disappointed to see reports in The Pharmaceutical Journal (9 September 2014) of Bill Scott’s comments at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society conference, which asserted a need to remove the science from the MPharm to focus on healthcare. The PhSC represents …

Ebola trials fast-tracked in Africa

Experimental drugs for Ebola are to be fast-tracked in clinical trials being set up in West African states that are fighting the epidemic. …

UK is a leading country in self-managing medical conditions, research suggests

The UK is among the most progressive when it comes to a culture of self-management of common medical conditions by reclassifying prescription medicines to non-prescription.…

What we need is public health education, not finger pointing

Although I do not disagree with Anthony Cox’s views on selling only evidence-based over-the-counter (OTC) medicines (The Pharmaceutical Journal 2014;293:176), his views are those of an academic working in a university and not from a pharmacist standing at a medical counter facing a sales …

TLR5 and gut micro-organisms involved in influenza vaccine response, research suggests

Researchers identify a correlation between toll-like receptor 5 expression shortly after vaccination and the subsequent magnitude of the antibody response.…

Science must remain at the heart of pharmacy education

Reforms to undergraduate pharmacy education must reflect the clinical future of pharmacy while ensuring a strong scientific foundation.…

OTC domperidone will be missed

The antiemetic domperidone’s reclassification shows the importance of pharmacovigilance, but the loss of such a useful over-the-counter medicine ought to have been better communicated to community pharmacies.…