http://pharmawareblog.co.uk Keeping members up-to-date with PharmAware news Fri, 08 Apr 2011 07:55:46 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en 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 http://pharmawareblog.co.uk/2011/04/08/changes-to-the-pharmaceutical-industrys-code-of-conduct/ International aid agencies have urged the Indian government to reject a free trade agreement it is negotiating with the European Union. The agreement may undermine India’s ability to produce cheap generic drugs. The concern stems from leaked sections of the text showing that the EU wants India to accept a ... http://pharmawareblog.co.uk/2011/03/15/india%e2%80%99s-pact-with-europe-may-choke-its-generic-drug-exports/ Emergency Medicine Australasia announced that they will stop accepting pharmaceutical advertisement. They say that the move is a response to growing evidence about the effects of the drug industry in medicine and claims that industry distorts ... http://pharmawareblog.co.uk/2011/03/07/australian-medical-journal-says-no-to-drug-advertising/ 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 http://pharmawareblog.co.uk/2011/03/07/losartan-could-save-nhs-money/ 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 ... http://pharmawareblog.co.uk/2011/03/07/pfizer-closes-kent-plant/ 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 ... http://pharmawareblog.co.uk/2011/01/28/health-ministers-may-call-for-appraisal-of-unlicensed-cancer-drug-for-eye-care/ The European Medicines Agency is preparing to make more of its documentaion available to health professionals and the general public. The policy can be seen at www.ema.europa.eu <http://www.ema.europa.eu/>BMJ 2010, 341, c7039 http://pharmawareblog.co.uk/2010/12/14/medicines-agency-widens-access-to-documents/ European parliament has passed draft legislation to allow drug companies to provide information directly to patients. The draft legislation would enable patients in the EU to receive data on a drug's characteristic and the disease and condition for which it is designed. It claims to guarantee that the information provided would ... http://pharmawareblog.co.uk/2010/12/09/drug-companies-may-provide-information-directly-to-eu-patients/ Two doctors in Germany have been convicted of bribery for accepting money from a drug firm for prescribing its drug.BMJ 2010, 341,c6359 http://pharmawareblog.co.uk/2010/11/12/two-german-doctors-are-convicted-of-taking-drug-company-bribes/ 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 ... http://pharmawareblog.co.uk/2010/11/12/drug-companies-to-declare-all-payments-to-doctors-from-2012/