Chemist & Druggist articles from September 2004

Chemist & Druggist archives from September 2004

`Equitable' share-out of #1.7bn contract money.(Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee)
September 4, 2004... PSNC is to explore how the DoH's #1.766 billion pay offer for England's national pharmacy contract can be shared "equitably" among contractors, following its acceptance of the offer last week. Possible distribution models will be examined...

25th guide to OTCs.
September 4, 2004... The 25th edition of the Chemist & Druggist Guide to OTC Medicines and Diagnostics is published with this week's issue of C&D. Updated twice a year, the Guide is a listing by therapeutic category of branded OTC medicines, herbal medicines,...

Shipman haunts GPs.(General practitioners)(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... Six GPs face charges of serious professional misconduct over alleged failures that allowed Harold Shipman's murders to go undetected. The doctors, who regularly signed cremation forms for Shipman, will appear before the General Medical...

PM visits pharmacy.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... Prime Minister Tony Blair visited a pharmacy in Harlow, Essex, this week as part of a Government visit focusing on anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs). Mr Blair spent 10-15 minutes talking to pharmacist David Grainge and his staff, at...

Lucozade sign.(Neon sign)(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... The famous neon Lucozade sign, visible from the M4 in Brentford, London, is soon to be no more. After more than 50 years, fears that it is too delicate to survive another winter have resulted in the sign being dismantled and transferred to the...

PCC agrees draft two-tier NI contract framework.(Pharmaceutical Contractors' Committee)
September 4, 2004... The Pharmaceutical Contractors' Committee has agreed a draft version of the new pharmacy contract framework with the Northern Ireland health department. The proposed framework comprises two tiers of services - essential core and enhanced....

Pharmacists welcome contract funding offer.
September 4, 2004... Pharmacy bodies have cautiously welcomed PSNC's decision to provisionally accept the Department of Health's #1.766 billion pay offer for England's new pharmacy contract. Numark chief executive David Wood said: "The key issue is not in the...

APTUK advises members on PI cover.(Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK)(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... The Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK has updated its advice to members on potential liabilities in everyday practice. It reiterates that criminal prosecution is a new and growing potential risk for all healthcare workers and, as costs...

BP goes electronic.
September 4, 2004... The Stationery Office has published British Pharmacopoeia 2004, which this year is also available in an electronic format. The latest edition contains all current UK and European monographs and includes a single volume of the BP...

Continence awareness.
September 4, 2004... The aim of this year's Continence Awareness Week, from September 13-19, is to promote professional help for people with bladder control problems. The theme is female stress incontinence and a free campaign pack from the Continence Foundation -...

Community views shape pharmacy.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... Pharmacy multiple Weldricks has extended premises in Yorkshire with input from the community on what services should be provided and how they are run. The pharmacy, in Swinton, South Yorkshire, officially opened the extension last month...

Sort out oxygen records.
September 4, 2004... The NPA has advised members to contact their oxygen supplier and get a statement of their cylinder holdings before changes to the domiciliary oxygen service. From April 2005, domiciliary oxygen will be supplied via contracts with gas...

NPA comes back on eye consultation.(National Pharmaceutical Association)(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... The NPA has published its response to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency's consultation on changes to medicine supply regulations for optometrists. The NPA supported the proposal to allow optometrists to supply P or...

Scotland to plough #57K into cutting drug deaths.
September 4, 2004... Scotland is investing #57,000 to help cut drug-related deaths. The funding will be for basic first aid training for addicts, their peers and their families to help them respond when faced with an overdose emergency. There were 317...

BPC Practice Research Medal.(British Pharmaceutical Conference )(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... Dr Ian Chi Kei Wong is to receive this year's BPC Practice Research Medal, sponsored by C&D, for research on improving medicine use in children. He will present his research at the British Pharmaceutical Conference in Manchester on September...

Government watchdog sinks its teeth into NHS IT.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... Government spending watchdog the National Audit Office has launched an investigation into the NHS National Programme for IT. Currently, the bill for the NHS NPfIT is expected to run to more than #6 billion over the next seven to 10 years,...

Boots is still supporting laser eye surgery.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... Boots is continuing to market its laser eye correction services, despite adverse media publicity associated with the Alcon LadarVision lasers used at nine of its stores. In the weekend papers, including The Times, Alcon's LadarVision...

Neath pharmacy up for business award.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... A Neath pharmacy is the only pharmacy in the running for this year's British Small Business Championships. The Medicine Centre in Neath will hear if it is to go forward to the national final of the Federation of Small Businesses award on...

Spending on drugs is up.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... Spending on new drug discoveries is likely to increase by 6 per cent a year for the foreseeable future, ethical drug market analyst Visiongain has warned. Current best estimates suggest it costs a drug company $803 million to bring a drug...

Clozapine `war' attracts the eye of the OFT.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... The Office of Fair Trading is to investigate Novartis Pharmaceuticals over a suspected breach of the Competition Act. This follows complaints that Novartis had been "talking down" clozapine newcomer Denzapine, which is marketed by Denfleet...

New Clinovia centre.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... The new Clinovia compounding and aseptic manufacturing centre in Harlow, Essex, will enable patients to choose whether to receive treatment in their homes, Bill Rammell, parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Foreign Office and MP for...

Drug Tariff.
September 4, 2004... The reimbursement prices for doxazosin, lisinopril, omeprazole and simvastatin have been significantly reduced in the September Drug Tariff. The DoH has overridden the normal Tariff rules and the lower reimbursement prices will apply to...

AAH is new partner for PSNC.(Community Pharmacy Development Programme)(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... AAH Pharmaceuticals has joined PSNC's Community Pharmacy Development Programme. The programme aims to raise the profile of contractors and support LPCs in the community through collaboration with industry partners. It currently has seven...

GSK goes public on data after paroxetine battle.(GlaxoSmithKline)(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... GlaxoSmithKline is to put clinical trial data on all its marketed medicines on the internet. The move follows the settlement of litigation in the USA, in which the New York attorney general's office alleged that GSK had suppressed evidence...

Comment from the Editor.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... News of the UK's pharmacy contracts is coming thick and fast. Last week PSNC accepted the DoH's #1.766 billion offer for England's service, Wales is expected to make an announcement shortly, and Scotland outlined its pay structure two weeks...

Opinion.
September 4, 2004... Our question to pharmacists this week was: Does PSNC's conditional acceptance of the DoH's #1.766 billion pay offer for the new pharmacy contract in England coupled with the plans for control of entry give you confidence for community...

YOUR VIEWS: There is no more time to lose.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... says UniChem's managing director, David Coles Since talks about the new contract started, we have been advising pharmacists to embrace the opportunity and start planning for the future. But it has been a period of uncertainty and many have...

NORTHERN IRELAND NOTEBOOK: You get what you pay for.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... Society membership fees have understandably raised eyebrows among members (C&D, August 14, p4). The Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland's retention fee has increased steadily in recent years but not on this scale. Common to both...

It's sink or swim time for independents.(Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee )(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... At last. PSNC has accepted a funding offer for the new contract - provisionally at least. The #1.766 billion offer sounds like a huge sum of money, and is more than double the current global sum (which also includes payments to Welsh...

Is that a yes from the caring majority?
September 4, 2004... So the men and women in their white coats, they said "yes". Or a few of them did anyway. Only 7.9 per cent of the membership voted in favour of the Society's new draft Charter. This was out of a total turnout of 9.3 per cent. There were 3,636...

GSLs get banged up.
September 4, 2004... The NPA's statement on prison officers supplying GSL medicines to prisoners (C&D, August 28, p6) raised a few questions in my mind. Would the officers have to undertake a counter assistants' training course, or equivalent? Are all convicted...

Open all hours - but how will this make a difference?
September 4, 2004... Will the balanced package of regulations about pharmacy location help or hinder consumers, asks Sheila Kelly, executive director of the Proprietary Association of Great Britain The devil is always in the detail, but now we know broadly how...

No restoration for fraud conviction.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... A North London pharmacist jailed for three years after admitting a #250,000 NHS scam has been told that he will never be allowed to practise again. It was the second time Bernard Masters had been convicted of defrauding the NHS. In 1984 he...

Halifax swindler fails in bid for register reinstatement.
September 4, 2004... A pharmacist who was struck off after he swindled the Halifax Building Society out of more than a quarter of a million pounds failed in his second bid to be restored to the Register last month. Yash Pal Kansal, of Manchester was struck off...

PHARMACY UPDATE: From coffee to Viagra.
September 4, 2004... Mark Greener explains why phosphodiesterase enzymes are becoming increasingly important in drug development According to legend, an Ethiopian goatherd discovered coffee when his animals frisked all night after eating beans from the bush....

Perindopril could save 50,000 cardiac deaths.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... Perindopril's vascular and anti-atherosclerotic effects could save 50,000 deaths in the UK over four years, a study claims. Researchers on the EUROPA trial found that perindopril demonstrated significant benefits on top of blood pressure...

Long-term nifedipine use for angina is safe.
September 4, 2004... Long-term use of long-acting nifedipine for angina is safe and reduces the need for coronary angiography, but has no impact on coronary events, researchers believe. After the five-year study mortality rates between patients assigned to...

Give statins sooner after heart attack.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... High-dose statin therapy soon after a patient experiences acute coronary syndrome might help reduce further cardiac events, but at the risk of muscle problems. Instead of waiting for patients to stabilise, the study investigated aggressive...

Statins prove effective and don't increase cancer risk.
September 4, 2004... Statins are effective at lowering coronary mortality in the long term without increasing the cancer risk, researchers in Scandinavia have found. In a randomised double-blind 10-year study the researchers found a 17 per cent reduction and a...

New drug hope for weight loss.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... More evidence supporting a drug to increase weight loss and improve lipid and glycaemic profiles was announced at the European Society of Cardiology this week. Patients who received 20mg of rimonabant, a selective cannabinoid (CB1)...

Desloratadine syrup.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... Desloratadine syrup is safe for children aged one to two for treating allergic rhinitis symptoms, the European medicines regulatory agency has heard. It can also be given to relieve symptoms of chronic idiopathic urticaria in children aged...

Decadron 0.5mg shortage.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... MSD has announced a likely supply shortage of 0.5mg Decadron tablets (dexamethasone) after September due to manufacturing complications. The company has stopped manufacturing the product as the complications are under review, but it says...

Dual supplement tackles severe joint problems.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... Seven Seas is launching a dual supplement for sufferers of severe joint problems into its JointCare range. Seven Seas JointCare Max contains 1,500mg glucosamine sulphate tablets and 975mg cod liver oil (Omega 3 400mg) capsules. The...

Gaviscon range is playing it cool.(new flavor)(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... Reckitt Benckiser has developed a cooling variant for heartburn relief in its Gaviscon range. Gaviscon Cool is formulated to provide a minty cooling sensation in the mouth and throat so the heartburn sufferer can immediately feel it...

Own-label fluconazole brought to you by Vantage.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... AAH Pharmaceuticals is adding fluconazole to its Vantage own-label range. Vantage Fluconazole 150mg oral single dose capsules are claimed to provide relief from the symptoms of thrush within 24 hours for most women. The launch is...

Rennie gives sufferers something to chew on.
September 4, 2004... Rennie Soft Chews will be on TV from September 20, backed by a #1 million advertising campaign. On air for a four week period, the commercial revisits the cafe scene featured in the brand's first campaign earlier this year. It features...

Skin is as clear as Mudd.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... Chattem UK is relaunching its Mudd Mask range of facial masks with an eye-catching look designed to emphasise the natural ingredients. The range comprises seven products - Original Mask, Sensitive Mask, Medicated Mask, Exfoliator & Mask, Sea...

Salon style for UK pharmacies.
September 4, 2004... Schwarzkopf & Henkel plans to widen the distribution of ARL haircare products in UK pharmacies. The move follows the company's acquisition of California-based Advanced Research Laboratories earlier this year. ARL brands include Zero...

Chasing after hangovers.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... EMT Healthcare has been appointed UK pharmacy distributor for Chaser for Wine and Original Chaser caplets. Chaser for Wine has been developed to help prevent a `wine headache' while Original Chaser is designed to help avoid a hangover from...

Keep your eyes open.
September 4, 2004... Brolene Cool Eyes will be in the public eye throughout this month backed by a #250,000 national TV campaign. The commercial will be aired on GMTV, ITV and major satellite channels. Aventis has produced a range of support materials to...

Astral's Absolutely Fabulous.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... Joanna Lumley is to star in a commercial for Astral moisturiser from September 13 to October 31. Three commercials feature the actress, a life-long Astral user, extolling the benefits of Astral as an all-over moisturiser. She tells...

Sleep-talking with Nytol.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... Nytol will be on TV from this month until December as part of a #1.5 million marketing package. National coverage will include late night and early morning TV slots for the first time. The TV campaign features the sleep aid's theatrically...

Cough up.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... Dendron is investing #250,000 in a national press campaign to rejuvenate its traditional Pulmo Bailly cough expectorant. Targeted at people aged 45-65, the campaign takes the angle that the medicine doesn't taste nice but is a powerful...

Dye out.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... Anusol Plus HC Suppositories (P) is changing colour from olive green to off-white to bring it in line with other products in the range. This will not affect the active ingredients or indications. Price: #4.35 Pack size: 12 Pip...

NiQuitin CQ gets real in Quittin' campaign.(Click2Quit)(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... Move over Big Brother, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare is to use reality TV to follow a real smoker through the highs and lows of giving up smoking. The launch of the "Quittin' with NiQuitin" campaign on September 6 will mark the start...

PHARMACY PRACTICE: Hit the power switch.
September 4, 2004... PAGB In its 85th anniversary year PAGB continues its series of articles reviewing key topical issues around self-care. This article, the fourth, reviews the changing nature of POM to P switches and emphasises the wider benefits they bring...

LEGISLATION: Get your act together.(Disability Discrimination Act )
September 4, 2004... This week C&D starts a series of articles looking at the Disability Discrimination Act. Fiona Salvage tells you what you need to know Never mind waiting on tenterhooks for the day that Government publishes the new pharmacy contract: one...

LEGISLATION: Breaking the barriers.(Disability Discrimination Act explained)
September 4, 2004... Tim McGough from the British Retail Consortium outlines the impact of the DDA on retailers From October 1, 2004, Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) makes it illegal for retailers to discriminate on how disabled customers...

Graeme Pharmacy refitted.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... The Graeme Pharmacy near Glasgow has been refitted by Dollar Rae to include better access for disabled people. The old steps, below, have been replaced with a ramp with a non-slip tiled surface and tubular stainless steel handrails. ...

AAH Pharmaceuticals - Appointment.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... AAH Pharmaceuticals has announced the appointment of Mike McArdle as branch manager of its Southampton depot. Mr McArdle has been with the company for 25 years and was previously assistant branch manager. He replaces Martin Ledger who has...

Markos Kyprianou appointed.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... Markos Kyprianou has been appointed European Union commissioner for health and consumer protection from November 1. Mr Kyprianou is from Cyprus and became a European commissioner in May when the country joined the EU. Copyright: CMP...

Angela goes solo.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... Those of you unlucky enough to live in the affluent suburbs will be familiar with the sight of the harassed mother peering through the steering wheel of her rugged 4 x 4 while bumping along the asphalt on the way to delivering Persephone and...

Pfizer cash helps air ambulances.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... Pfizer employees, GPs and vets have raised #105,000 for charity after competing in the Pfizer Brecon Challenge. The one-day event involved scaling the Pen-y-Fan Horseshoe (the highest peak in the Brecons), cycling 35km along the Taff Trail...

Surrey golfers tee off before dinner to celebrate 50 years.(Surrey Pharmacist Golfing Society )(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... The South London and Surrey Pharmacist Golfing Society celebrated its 50th anniversary with a golf competition and dinner at Walton Heath Golf Club in Walton on the Hill, Surrey. Sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline, this year's event was won by...

Olympic athlete gives his body to Numark.(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... The Olympics may be over, but track event fans can see one athlete whenever they want if they pop into their local Numark pharmacy. Just a quick look at the nutrition shelves will show Olympian Kemel Thompson who competed for Jamaica in the...

Sponsorship plea.(Mount Merrion Pharmacy)(Brief Article)
September 4, 2004... Pharmacist Patrick Moore of Mount Merrion Pharmacy, Belfast, has run the Belfast Marathon and the Lisburn Half Marathon, raising over #2,000 for the Ulster Cancer Foundation. Next he plans to compete in the Great North Run at the end of...

All about medicines management.(Brief Article)
September 11, 2004... A resource detailing the ideal medicines management programme has been published by the Department of Health. In such a programme, patients would know when and how to take their medicine, why it was prescribed, what to do about side effects...

Fake Reductil in drug supply chain.
September 11, 2004... Another counterfeit product has emerged onto the UK medicines market. Last week the MHRA issued its second recall in a fortnight, this time for a product supplied as the anti-obesity drug Reductil. The first recall in 10 years for a fake...

Buy herbal remedies at pharmacies.
September 11, 2004... Patients should buy herbal medicines from health practitioners such as pharmacists to prevent harming their health with dangerous interactions, an academic pharmacist has warned. A high proportion of the population is at risk of...

Cornwall's pharmacists allowed to treat infections.(Brief Article)
September 11, 2004... A scheme allowing pharmacists to supply Prescription Only Medicines for common infections is to be rolled out to all pharmacies in central Cornwall early next year. Under the project, pharmacists can supply trimethoprim for uncomplicated...

CPP sets out to tackle public health.
September 11, 2004... The College of Pharmacy Practice is to set up a faculty for pharmacists with an interest in public health. As a first step, the CPP will establish a public health interest group, which will provide a framework of practice standards to help...

$3m funding for pregnancy trial.(Brief Article)
September 11, 2004... US researchers have received almost $3 million to fund the first study into medications in pregnant women. Mary Hebert, associate professor of pharmacy at Washington University, leads the team that will look into why pregnant women...

LPC website.(Lambeth, Southwark & Lewisham LPC )(Brief Article)
September 11, 2004... Lambeth, Southwark & Lewisham LPC has launched a database on its website to help the public locate pharmacies by postcode, opening time, location, language spoken and range of services provided. For more informationa: www.lsllpc.com ...

Pharmacy plays host to DoH personnel in Yorkshire.(Department of Health)(Brief Article)
September 11, 2004... Senior Department of Health personnel made nearly 50 visits to health service providers, including a pharmacy, in West Yorkshire last week. As part of the exercise, public health minister Melanie Johnson called into Cohen's Pharmacy in the...

New card for Welsh script charges.
September 11, 2004... PSNC has published a prescription card to reflect the lower prescription charges payable in Wales from October 1. Welsh prescription item charges will fall from #6 to #5 next month and pre-payment prices will fall from #31.40 to #26.16 for...

SOP use impacts on locum status.(Standard Operating Procedure )
September 11, 2004... Locum pharmacists who, as part of their locum agreement, sign to work within a pharmacy's standard operating procedures, will be classified as employees, the NPA has said. The NPA's tax consultants have said such an agreement would breach...

Family Business of the Year Award.(GR Lane Health Products)(Brief Article)
September 11, 2004... Running in the family. We are family. Either of these song titles could have been playing when the representatives from GR Lane Health Products stepped up to collect the Family Business of the Year Award from Cotswold Life magazine last month....

Doubt over NHS value for money.
September 11, 2004... Whether increased NHS funding is producing value for money in terms of cost reductions or health gain is "unanswered and unanswerable", the RPSGB's latest quarterly Health Policy Review has concluded. There are improvements such as...

Alliance UniChem buoyant.(Brief Article)
September 11, 2004... The Government's announcement on the control of entry regulations seems to have pleased the City. Share prices in pharmaceutical wholesaler Alliance UniChem saw the second highest rise in the stock market on August 31 and peaked at 679.5p on...

Pfizer's UK supply quota proposal causes concern.
September 11, 2004... Pfizer is introducing a quota system for its products in the UK in an attempt to counter imports of potentially unsafe medicines into the USA. Pfizer has warned UK wholesalers that it intends to cap supplies here, allowing only sufficient...

Pfizer battle with websites.(Brief Article)
September 11, 2004... Pfizer is also currently doing battle with websites offering `generic' Lipitor. Patent protected Lipitor is an anti-cholesterol product. However, tablets from two of the web suppliers have been tested and found to have no cholesterol-lowering...

GSK under fire again.(GlaxoSmithKline)(Meshbesher & Spence )(Brief Article)
September 11, 2004... GlaxoSmithKline could face an estimated #200 million bill for damages in the USA if a lawsuit being attempted by Meshbesher & Spence is successful. The Minnesota-based solicitors are recruiting parents of adolescents given its antidepressant...

600th Numark member.(Brief Article)
September 11, 2004... Dorset pharmacist Roger King has become the 600th Numark member to install the company's fascia above his pharmacy. Mr King, whose pharmacy is in Lytchett Matravers near Poole, said: "I am facing increased competition from the multiples, which...

Illegal blood strip imports found on pharmacy shelves.(Brief Article)
September 11, 2004... Illegally imported Roche Diagnostics blood glucose strips have been found on pharmacy shelves in the UK, says the company. Roche says it has stopped four illegal imports in the UK of the blood glucose strips since August last year and is...