Patients with asthma and COPD are going to be getting a lot of attention from pharmacists over the coming months. Asthma and COPD is a key area for the New Medicine Service (which will be delivered to patients just starting out with treatments), whilst patients with respiratory disease are one of the national target groups for the new targeted MURs initiative.

So perhaps more than ever before pharmacists will be a key influence on respiratory medicine use, delivering the adherence messages that will support people to take their medicines effectively and lead to improved therapeutic outcomes.

Want to find out what this means for your brand, plus how to reach pharmacists and engage with them to deliver more effective and targeted messages? Email paul.lowndes@mediapharm.co.uk.

The NMS service seems not to have come a moment to soon in the case of type 2 diabetes if a report from the NHS Information Centre is anything to go by.  Its report on diabetes prescribing in England in the last five years was released this week, and it makes for interesting reading. It seems that ‘Drugs for Diabetes’ is the BNF category of highest cost and greatest increase in cost in the in primary care in England over the last year, and that in 2010/11 there were 38.3 million items prescribed for diabetes.

With everyone agreeing that the burden of diabetes is likely to increase over the coming years then it is essential that this significant spend on diabetes medicines yields the desired therapeutic outcomes, and that no diabetes medicine sits unused.

That’s where the New Medicine Service (NMS) comes in, and this will see pharmacists providing support to patients who are newly prescribed a type 2 diabetes medicine, with the purpose of promoting continued adherence with it.

The NMS starts in October and pharmacists are currently undertaking learning to help them with the mechanics of how the service will be delivered. One thing that pharmacists have said is that with the range of therapeutic areas and medicines that will be covered, they will of course need to brush up on the key adherence messages for them. In the key therapeutic area of type 2 diabetes that’s at least 10 medicines for them to update their knowledge on.

This provides industry with an opportunity to drive medicine adherence for their diabetes medicine by offering pharmacists the tools they need to deliver on NMS and give patients the key adherence information that they need.

Find out more about how you can do this – email paul.lowndes@mediapharm.co.uk.

For more information on the New Medicine Service click here

The Healthy Living Pharmacy (HLP) initiative started life in Portsmouth in 2009/10 and very quickly demonstrated its worth. HLPs deliver high-quality public health services such as stop smoking, weight loss, contraception and sexual health and have been shown to deliver results, for example in stop smoking rates and improvements in condition for people with asthma and COPD.

Now the HLP initiative is to come to other areas of the country, with 20 HLP Pathfinder Sites inEngland recently announced.

Pharmacists are ideally placed to contribute to the public health agenda, and they provide information and support to people day in, day out. That said, there is always room to develop knowledge and skills in this area to ensure that they can deliver top quality services. The pharma industry have a lot of public-health related knowledge and expertise that pharmacy can draw on especially around key services of HLP – smoking cessation, sexual health and weight management and targeted medicines use reviews (MURs)

Whilst the New Medicine Service (NMS) is a focus for many at the moment, let’s not forget targeted MURs.

You probably know about the MUR service where pharmacists support patients to make better use of their medicines by undertaking a medicines use review consultation with them? Well as of October, 50% of all MURs delivered by pharmacists will need to be targeted to specific groups – those taking high risk medicines, patients recently discharged from hospital with changes to their medication, and patients with respiratory disease.

The list of medicines classed as high risk has recently been announced – NSAIDs, anticoagulants, antiplatelets, and diuretics. For patients with respiratopry disease, the patient must be taking a medicine that is on the asthma and COPD list for the NMS.

So as of October, pharmacists will be focusing a lot of their MUR effort on these groups of patients, and whilst they are very familiar with the service, there is always room for improving knowledge and skills, particularly around ensuring the medicine is used safely and effectively by delivering adherence messages for these medicines.

MURs have always been a powerful tool for pharma companies to drive medicines adherence, and the advent of targeted MURs really ups the ante.

Does your brand fall into one of the targeted MUR groups? If so, get in touch with us here at Mediapharm to find out more about how to reach pharmacists and engage with them to deliver more effective and targeted messages.

Email paul.lowndes@mediapharm.co.uk for further details.

More details on the New Medicine Service have been announced this week. We knew that the NMS would cover four key therapy areas (asthma/COPD, Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, anticoagulants/antiplatelets) but a list of medicines (defined by BNF category) has been published, so any person taking those medicines in one of the key therapy areas for the first time will be eligible to receive the NMS from a pharmacist.

As we inch ever closer to launch in October, now is the time to think about how you might support pharmacists to deliver NMS in your therapeutic area.

To find out more about how you can do this, email fawz@mediapharm.co.uk.

For information on the NMS click here

A national strategy for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) has highlighted community pharmacy services as key in the drive to improve patient outcomes and deliver high-quality care for patients with COPD.

The DH document, ‘An Outcomes Strategy for COPD and asthma in England,’ identifies the New Medicine Service (NMS) and targeted Medicines Use Reviews (MURs) as services that can support patients to take their medicines as intended and helping to improve healthy lifestyles. The Healthy Living Pharmacy concept is also singled out as making a real difference to the health and well-being of patients with COPD.

NMS starts in earnest in October, but before then pharmacists are doing all they can to prepare themselves for delivering the service. This includes updating their knowledge in the key therapeutic areas, of which COPD is one, and getting an understanding of the key adherence issues that they might face. The NMS provides industry with a powerful tool to drive medicines adherence and when integrated into a pharma company’s marketing strategy, can be harnessed to drive your patient support programmes and other adherence activities. Mediapharm is working on resources to support pharmacists in delivering the NMS, and of you have a COPD brand you could input into those resources.

Pharmacy has to step up to the plate and successfully deliver the NMS service – why not support them to do that?

To find out more email fawz@mediapharm.co.uk

The latest National Diabetes Audit has shown that almost half of people with type 2 diabetes and two thirds of people with type 1 diabetes are not receiving all the care ‘bundles’ required.

Type 2 diabetes is identified as a priority of the New Medicine Service (NMS), a service that will see pharmacists providing dedicated support to patients prescribed a medicines for the first time. People with diabetes can also access support in their medicines use through the Medicines Use Review (MUR) service and the two services combined could see pharmacy make a massive contribution to patients care in diabetes.

NMS kicks off in October and before then there isn’t a moment to lose for pharmacy to prepare for the service so that they can hit the ground running and ensure the ongoing success of the initiative for patients, pharmacy and the NHS. A great way to start is for pharmacists make preparations by updating their knowledge and skills in type 2 diabetes, and industry support here could be key.

If you want to find out more about NMS and the support that you could offer, email paul.lowndes@mediapharm.co.uk.

With the New Medicine Service (NMS) and targeted MURs gathering pace, the pressure is on for everyone to prepare for launch in October. The frustration for pharmacists is that they want to start preparing now but with the national training, service spec and paperwork for implementing the service still being drawn up they feel their hands are tied.

There is alot that can be done ahead of October and stakeholders attending a recent NMS meeting saw real value in support from industry in this time. For example, industry can offer much needed support in getting pharmacists prepared in the key therapy areas that the NMS will launch with, namely asthma/COPD, hypertension, type 2 diabetes and anti-platelet/anticoagulant therapy.

Stakeholders also thought there was an opportunity for industry in facilitating communications on NMS between the pharmacist and GP, using their reps for example to promote the NMS to GPs and encourage them to refer all patients prescribed a medicine for the first time to the pharmacy for a NMS. Some even suggested that GPs should ‘prescribe’ a NMS on an FP10 alongside the new medicine.

The pharmacy NMS provides industry with a powerful tool to drive medicine adherence and, when integrated into a pharma company’s marketing strategy, can be harnessed to drive your branded patient support programme and other adherence activities. Mediapharm is working closely with the key pharmacy bodies and industry players to develop templates that will benefit patients, pharmacists and industry. If your brands fall into one of the four therapy priorities, you may be able to input into the resources we are developing to support pharmacists.

E-Mail:fawz@mediapharm.co.uk for further details.

Pharmacy has to make this a success and they want all the support they can get to do that.

Fawz Farhan

This is according to the Pharmacy Minister Earl Howe, who was addressing this year’s PAGB annual conference. He said that they should have an increased ability to treat conditions that are usually seeing as being the preserve of doctors, citing the POM to P switch of Flomax Relief as an example of what can be done. He also revealed that MHRA and key industry stakeholders are currently looking at the process of reclassification and how it can deliver groundbreaking switches for the UK.

This sounds very promising for the POM to P swtich agenda, and its something that we are passionate about here at Mediapharm having been involved in some of the most high profile switches of recent years. More groundbreaking switches will be most welcome, but there are lots of factors that go into making a switch a success for pharma and for the pharmacy professsion, and these all need to be considered and addressed from the very earliest stage of the switch process.

At Mediapharm we’ve got a wealth of knowledge and experience that is invaluable for swtich success. So if what Earl Howe has said got you thinking about switching a product from POM to P then get in touch to find out more about our services -  email Paul Lowndes at paul.lowndes@mediapharm.co.uk

Here at Mediapharm we’ve been involved in some of the highest profile POM to P switches of the last 10 years and pharma companies come to us because of our hands-on experience of POM to P from strategic assessment to pharmacy launch. We’re passionate about POM to P switching and want to share our knowledge and expertise to help you achieve switch success.

Mediapharm and the SMI group have teamed up for a one-off masterclass on ‘POM to P – Critical Success Factors’, in London on 5th July. Book direct with Zane Philbey on +44 (0) 207 827 6188 by Monday 13th June and quote ‘mediapharm’ to secure one of the last remaining places for just £499 (usually £599).

This is a great opportunity for you to get the lowdown on POM to P switching so don’t miss out – book today (offer ends Monday 13th June).