"Country Doctor"
JOIN CDA NEWS INDEX POLITICS DISPENSING EDUCATION FEATURES BOOKS SMALL ADS GP FEES LIGHT BITES LINKS FEEDBACK
Dispensing
Snippets - July/November 2004
|
13 November 2004 Government cutting branded prices via PPRS The Department of Health will cut the prices of branded prescription medicines by 7 per cent from The price reduction has been agreed as part of the new Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme, and the Department of Health has said it will save the NHS over £1.8 billion over the next five years. This saving will be put back into PCTs to fund “frontline NHS services”, the DoH added. Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry president Vincent Lawton called the price cut “unnecessary”, but said other aspects of the PPRS meant the agreement offered stability to the industry. Cutting branded drug prices will reduce
wholesalers’ margins and affect the service offered to contractors,
Sigma Pharmaceuticals managing director Bharat Shah has warned. The 7 per cent price drop for branded
medicines, agreed as part of the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme
and effective from January 1 meant parallel importers would have less
money to reinvest in their businesses. In time, this would lead to a
reduction in the services offered to retailers, Mr Shah said. Calling the PPRS agreement “a new
enemy”, Mr Shah said it had further compounded the problems
wholesalers were experiencing in obtaining PIs. Manufacturers imposing
quota limits, the large number of parallel importers and the growing
number of generic launches had already made such products difficult to
get, he said. Dispensing doctors will lose thousands of
pounds following the recent 7 per cent price drop on branded
pharmaceuticals, wholesalers’ representatives have warned. Calling the recent Prescription Price
Regulation Scheme renegotiation a “double whammy” when linked with
the £200 million drop in generics payments, Steve Dunn, chairman of the
British Association of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers, estimated that the
collective effect of the PPRS and the generics pricing changes could
take £4,000 out of the average pharmacy and an unestimated amount from
dispensing practices. “On top of the radical revision of
generic drug remuneration this is just another way of stripping cash out
of pharmacy and pharmaceutical wholesaling.”
For more information: Reid orders
MHRA reform
Health secretary John Reid has ordered
radical reforms to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory
Agency to end alleged conflicts of interest between its members and the
drugs industry it is supposed to regulate. Officials said the timing of the changes
had nothing to do with the current investigation by the House of Commons
select committee on health, which has produced damning evidence about
some of the practices of the drugs industry and the MHRA itself. Health minister Lord Warner has announced
radical changes to the Members of the MHRA’s committees will
be subject to stricter controls over possible conflicts of interest
under the proposed new legislation. Chairmen and members of the new
commission – a merger between the Committee on Safety of Medicines and
the Medicines Commission – will not be allowed to hold interests in
the pharmaceutical industry. They will be held accountable to a revised
code of practice, on which the MHRA has opened a consultation. This move
is “to ensure impartial advice is given on regulation of medicines”. The new commission, provisionally called
the Committee for Safety and Efficacy of Medicines, will advise
ministers on regulatory matters for human medicines. Its remit will be
to exercise judgement based on medical and scientific evidence, but
representing a “wider risk-benefit judgement”.
8 November 2004 Counter
fraud measures to be extended
27 September 2004 Dispensing practices should try to minimise stocks of branded pharmaceutical medicines prior to any possible price reduction within the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme, PSNC is warning. The current scheme, which allows manufacturers of proprietary drugs to set their prices to the NHS within agreed profit criteria, is due to expire on September 30 and when the new agreement is announced in the near future, it could include a percentage reduction in the prices of proprietary drugs reimbursed to dispensing practices. Dispensing doctors need to be aware that an announcement is imminent, and subject to the over-riding issue of service to their patients, try to minimise their NHS stock of proprietaries immediately prior to any price reduction.
17 September, 2004 These changes will, at the very least, be the rather short-sighted, not to say idiotic changes negotiated by the DDA Ltd with the GPC and the chemists. Changes which seem specifically designed to ring-fence dispensing practices prior to being picked off one by one by pharmacy Department of Health officials recently met with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee and the British Medical Association’s GP Committee to discuss how best the reforms could be introduced. In a further explanation on September 9 of how the control of entry changes will be implemented, health minister Rosie Winterton said the Government intended to implement the rural dispensing reforms at the same time. Market town and other doctors should consider this to be the last chance to get a dispensing application in before the GPC and the DDA Ltd finally sell your rights down the river. HANSARDGeneral PractitionersChris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what compensation is paid to GPs who lose their right to dispense; [127629]
Ms Rosie Winterton: General practitioners do not normally receive compensation if they are no longer required to dispense National Health Service prescriptions. Primary care trusts can make transitional arrangements to ensure an orderly winding-down of such dispensing services. The Government has no plans to change the conditions under which certain GPs can dispense NHS prescriptions. However, in our response to the Health Select Committee Fifth Report, The Control of Entry Regulations and Retail Pharmacy Services in the UK (Cm 5896) on 17 July 2003, we said that we would invite medical and pharmacy representative bodies to look again at existing proposals to reform the rules governing rural NHS dispensing. We are setting up an advisory group to advise on how best to implement a series of changes we are proposing to current NHS dispensing rules. We published further details on 29 August 2003 in Proposals to Reform and Modernise the NHS (Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 1992. A copy has been placed in the Library. We will also ask the group to consider the results of the representative bodies' consideration of their proposals for reforming the rules governing rural NHS dispensing. 9 Sept 2003 : Column 331W Contact me, David Roberts, on Davidroberts@doctors.net.uk any time for immediate and urgent help.
25 August, 2004
The Medicines and
Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is recalling two lots of
counterfeit (fake) Cialis 20 mg tablets following the discovery of
counterfeits of the drug in the legitimate supply chain.
Cialis is used to treat erectile dysfunction and is manufactured and distributed by Eli Lily Ltd. Initial tests of the counterfeit product show that the counterfeits do not pose an immediate risk to patients. The lot numbers affected are A031410 and A041410 (these numbers can be found at the end of the carton and on the blister strip inside the carton). Any patient in possession of either of the above lot numbers should return the material from where it was purchased. MHRA Chief Executive, Professor Kent Woods said: “Patients who are in possession of this counterfeit drug should return it immediately. Whilst initial tests show that the product does not pose an immediate risk to patients, the quality of this product can not be guaranteed. If patients think that they have taken the product and are concerned about any side effects they should consult their doctor“. No lots manufactured and distributed by Lilly ICOS Ltd are impacted by this recall, and there is no concern with the genuine Lilly ICOS product. Patients who are concerned about the recall can also contact Eli Lilly on the following free phone number: 0800 085 3847. Notes to Editors: 1. This is the first such incident of a counterfeit product being discovered in the legitimate UK supply chain since the case involving AZANTAC (ranitidine) tablets in 1994. 2. Cialis (tadalafil) is used to treat erectile dysfunction and is a centrally authorised product (by EMA European Medicines Agency) Eli Lilly product. The licence holder is Eli Lilly and Co Ltd. 3. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) investigates all allegations of counterfeit medicines in the UK, the vast majority of which are not associated with the tightly regulated legitimate supply chain. Action in the form of legal proceedings is taken when appropriate. 4. Counterfeit medicines is a global problem, therefore the MHRA continues to liaise closely with international Regulatory partners and the pharmaceutical industry to ensure that the tackling of counterfeiting medicines remains a priority activity.
20 July, 2004 Reimbursement
for supply of doxazosin, lisinopril, omeprazole and simvastatin
was first cut last December. Health minister Lord Warner announced
further cuts from September 1. Dispensing doctors, as business people, should consider carefully whether it is in their best interests to continue to supply these medicines under their generic names. The government should understand that very action may have a reaction and that dispensing doctors are not NHS serfs - are they?
Software to
explain drug name changes to patients |