The pharmaceutical industry will no longer provide branded promotional aids, such as pens, pads and mugs to health
professionals. This will take effect from 1st May 2011. Some companies have already made this change
and others may do so ahead of this date.
http://www.abpi.org.uk/our-work/library/industry/Pages/joint-statement.aspx
The NHS in England could save £200m a year if it switched patients with hypertension from candesartan to losartan without any loss of clinical benefits. BMJ 2011 342, d890
Pfizer is planning to close its research and development plan in Kent as part of a plan to trim research spending from over $8bn to less than $7bn. They plan to focus on areas that offer the greatest promise such as cancer and vaccines.
BMJ 2011 342, d771
Health ministers in England may call for a full technology appraisal of a cancer drug to treat eye conditions, even though it is not licensed for the condition. Avastin has been widely used in the UK and the US to treat age-related macular degeneration, despite lack of license, because it is much cheaper than the licensed alternative, Lucentis. Both were developed by Genetech and Lucentis is approved for NHS used by NICE. Avastin is about 15 times cheaper than Lucentis. However, Roche has no desire to apply for a licence for Avastin as it would be undercutting its own licensed alternative.Although it is not unprecedented for NICE to review unlicensed medicines, the MHRA generally discourages the use of unlicensed products when a licensed alternative exists.BMJ 2011; 342: d62
Changes to the UK drug industry code of practice (ABPI) will require drug companies to make an annual declaration of how much money they have paid to doctors for use of their services. The changes will see each drug company declare the amount and the number of times payments were made to doctors, including speaker fees, advisory boards and consultancy, and sponsorship for attendance at meetings. The code does not however require individual doctors to be named.Another change to he code which comes into effect on 1st Jan 2011, will ban the industry from providing branded promotional items such as pens to healthcare professionals. Health professionals may still get pens and paper at conferences but this will not bear the name of any medicine, just the company name.BMJ 2010, 341, c6290
Andrew Lansley, health secretary, has repearted stated his intention of moving the NHS to a value based pricing for drugs in the NHS. This means the government will negotiate prices with the pharmaceutical companies according to the therapeutic benefits they will bring to patients. However, this means that the role of NICE in ruling whether drugs should be made available to patients on the NHS will be reductant. In addition, this move will lead to GPs having to take on the role of rationing drugs and is likely to lead to a postcode lottery.
BMJ 2010, 341, c6240
The coalition governement has dropped plans to introduce the automatic substitution of generic drugs in primary care in England.
BMJ 2010, 341, c5780
Tesco has been granted permission to sell sildenafil (Viagra) in 300 pharmacies in its supermarkets without the need for a prescription from a GP. The Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency confirmed that sildenafil remains prescription only and that Tesco has been granted permission to dispense the drug uder a special licence called patient group direction. These licences are granted in situations where they offer an advantage to the care of patients without compromising their safety and where they provide an opportunity for general health screening.
BMJ 2010, 341, c5294
The new Government has indicated that drug pricing will be subject to value-based pricing through NICE, which may delay drug launches.
BMJ 2010; 340:c2933
The new coalition government has reinterated its preelection promise to give patients access to expensive cancer treatments after NICE rejected a drug for liver cancer for use on the NHS because of cost-effectiveness.
BMJ 2010;340:c2832
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