Graham Clews

A programme to tackle polypharmacy could have saved over £1m across the NHS in England, a report published by the Health Innovation Network (HIN) has found. The report, ‘Polypharmacy programme: getting the balance right’, published on 25 September 2025, revealed that HIN worked with over 12,000 healthcare professionals to provide training and support to help […]

A pharmacist developing microneedle patches, and another who produced a model predicting the risk of medicines-related harm in older patients, have been announced as joint winners of the 2025 ‘Outstanding Pharmacy Early-Career Researcher Award’ (OPERA). The winners — Qonita Anjani, a research fellow at Queen’s University Belfast, and Jennifer Stevenson, lead pharmacist for older adults […]

Pharmacy bodies warn that demand for weight-loss drug will outstrip supply

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has added its name to a call for political parties in Wales to commit to a funded long-term plan for the future of the NHS workforce, ahead of Senedd elections in 2026. The call, published on 4 June 2025 and co-signed by 37 other health and social care bodies in […]

A staggering 4,790 people died as a result of drug misuse in Great Britain in 2023, according to the most recent data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). ONS figures reveal that there were 3,618 drug-misuse deaths in England and Wales in 2023 — a 16% increase from 3,127 drug-misuse deaths in 2022. At […]

Community pharmacies in England have had their funding boosted by £617m over the next two years, following agreement on a new two-year contract. In a statement published on 31 March 2025, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) said overall funding for community pharmacy would rise in 2025/2026 to more than £3bn per year for the first time. […]

Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) members have voted in favour of becoming a royal college. The results of a special resolution vote, announced on 26 March 2025, show that 71.1% of members voted to support proposed changes to the RPS’s Royal Charter and a transition to royal college status. Of 6,144 votes cast, 4,369 (71.1%) were […]

Medicines shortages have presented the government, pharmacists and patients with one crisis after another in recent years. For example, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder medicines, antiepileptics, the pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy Creon (pancreatin; Mylan) and diabetes medicines — such as insulin and glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) — have all been subject to shortages in the UK […]

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has overturned previous draft guidance on elranatamab (Elrexfio; Pfizer), removing restrictions on the use of the treatment for multiple myeloma, following an agreement with the manufacturer to make the drug available to the NHS at a discount. Previous draft guidance, published in July 2024, recommended the […]

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has rejected a second Alzheimer’s disease treatment for use across the NHS in England and Wales. In draft guidance published on 23 October 2024, NICE said that donanemab (Kisunla; Eli Lilly) did not provide good value for the NHS and that more evidence was needed on […]

Pfizer has withdrawn voxelotor (Oxbryta) worldwide for the treatment of sickle cell disease (SCD), owing to the emergence of clinical data that links “fatal events” to the drug. In a statement published on 25 September 2024, the company said that its decision was “based on the totality of clinical data that now indicates the overall […]

The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has failed to meet a regulatory standard on the timeliness of its fitness-to-practise (FtP) system for the sixth year in a row. In its annual report on the performance of the GPhC, published on 25 September 2024, the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) — which sets standards for all UK health […]

The Pharmaceutical Journal from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society

Pharmacy technicians have not had an easy path to recognition for their contributions in pharmacy settings. A survey of 236 pharmacy technicians carried out by The Pharmaceutical Journal in 2018 revealed that pharmacy technicians felt they were taking on extra work without being properly resourced, with half of respondents considering leaving the profession as a […]

The Pharmaceutical Journal from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society

The Pharmaceutical Journal from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society

The Pharmaceutical Journal from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society

The Pharmaceutical Journal from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society

The Pharmaceutical Journal from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society

The Pharmaceutical Journal from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society