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Medicines watchdog to investigate UK peptide clinics over health claims

The medicines regulator is investigating whether UK clinics are breaking the law by making claims about the benefits of unregulated, experimental peptide therapies, the Guardian can reveal.

Interest in experimental peptides has boomed in recent years. The substances are delivered by injection and are touted by sellers, influencers and even some medics as aiding everything from anti-ageing to recovery from injury.

There is little scientific evidence to support such health and wellness claims in humans. Where studies have been carried out, most are in animals or cells.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has said clinics are not permitted to make medicinal claims for the peptide treatments offered by their service.

An MHRA spokesperson said: “If clinics offering peptide injections make medicinal claims for those treatments, the products will be considered medicines and subject to regulation under the Human Medicines Regulations 2012.

“The MHRA will take action against clinics which are identified as breaching the legal requirements.”

However, a Guardian investigation has found a number of clinics operating in the UK offering a variety of unregulated, experimental peptides and making a host of claims about their benefits on their websites.

These include approved prescription weight-loss medications based on synthetic peptides that mimic natural hormones, such as semaglutide and tirzepatide, found in weight loss drugs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro respectively. But many other peptides on the market have not undergone the strict regulatory processing that those used in medications have undergone, and remain experimental.

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Source: The Guardian, 4 April 2026

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Medicines regulator failed to flag Covid vaccine side effects and must be investigated, say MPs

The medical regulator failed to sound the alarm over Covid vaccine side effects and should be investigated, MPs have said. 

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for approving drugs and devices and monitors side effects caused by treatments.

But the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on pandemic response and recovery, an influential group of MPs, has raised “serious patient safety concerns”. It has claimed that “far from protecting patients” the regulator operates in a way that “puts them at serious risk”.

Some 25 MPs across four parties have written to the health select committee asking for an urgent investigation. In reply, Steve Brine, the health committee chairman, has said an inquiry into patient safety is “very likely”. 

In a letter to Mr Brine, the APPG said that there was reason to believe that the MHRA had been aware of post-vaccination heart and clotting issues as early as February 2021, but did not highlight the problems for several months.

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Source: The Telegraph, 27 February 2024

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Medicines courier Sciensus was warned it was failing patients three years ago

The boss of a private healthcare company exposed by the Guardian for putting seriously ill children and adults at risk was warned it was failing patients three years ago.

Darryn Gibson, the chief executive of Sciensus, Britain’s biggest medicines courier, was told in November 2020 that patients with bleeding disorders were being left dangerously exposed to internal bleeding with little or no treatment at home as a result of botched, delayed or missed deliveries.

Gibson received the written warning from Kate Burt, the chief executive of the Haemophilia Society, a leading health charity, after she had become outraged at how vulnerable patients were being let down.

Sciensus blamed IT issues and promised action. However, three years later, patients remain at “very serious” risk of harm because of “recurring” problems with the company, Burt said.

“We continue to receive complaints about missing, incomplete or inaccurate deliveries and are very concerned to see the same issues recurring, indicating that far more needs to be done to improve Sciensus’s ordering and delivery systems,” she said.

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Source: The Guardian, 12 May 2023

 

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Medicines blackout threatens ICS prevention target

The government’s target for England to become smoke-free by 2030 – which integrated care systems are expected to pursue – is being undermined by the unavailability of two smoking cessation medicines.

The objective, set by government in 2019, is being taken forward by many ICSs, as they seek to prevent premature illness and death, and narrow health inequalities, with smoking rates normally higher in more deprived populations.

However HSJ analysis of drug shortages revealed that the two cessation medicines are both currently unavailable for an extended period.

Champix (varenicline) has been unavailable since October 2021, a situation exacerbated by the absence of Zyban (bupropion), since December 2022.

Both drugs were withdrawn because of concerns about the presence of nitrosamines, which may increase risk of cancer if people are exposed to them above acceptable levels, and will be subject to further tests and regulatory checks if they are to return.

Matthew Evison, a lung cancer and tobacco dependency specialist at Manchester University Foundation Trust, said Champix was clinicians’ “most powerful weapon” against smoking. He said the treatment gap would make the target harder because “smoking prevalence declines will be slower without varenicline”.

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Source: HSJ, 30 January 2023

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Medicine supply problems double in a year

Medicine supply issues have soared in the past year, with the number of unavailable medicines nearly doubling from 52 in January 2022 to 97 this month, figures seen by HSJ reveal.

Analysis of NHS supply alerts shared with HSJ shows a persistent monthly rise over the past year in the number of unavailable drugs. It also reveals that 12 “serious shortage protocols” – a more serious level of alert which allow pharmacists to dispense alternatives more easily – have been issued this month, compared to three in January last year.

This is based on an analysis by the British Generics Manufacturers Association of NHS Specialist Pharmacy Service (SPS) medicines supply tool data. SPS data, seen by HSJ, shows several “high impact” shortages, which means they have the potential to change clinical practice or have safety implications.

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Source: HSJ, 26 January 2023

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Medicine shortages show broken system, pharmacists warn

The system for sourcing medicines in England is broken and needs a fundamental overhaul to prevent shortages, senior pharmacists have told MPs.

They were giving evidence at the first session of an inquiry by the Commons Health and Social Care Committee, which is exploring issues largely affecting community, primary care, and hospital pharmacy services.

Dr Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies, told MPs that shortages of antibiotics, hormone replacement therapy, and medicines to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder over the past few years were symptomatic of "a real problem". Pharmacists constantly find that "medicines come on the market and then, all of a sudden as soon as the demand goes a little bit up, they are no longer available," she explained.

She told the inquiry: "That indicates that something in the system is not right."

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Source: Medscape, 22 November 2023

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Medicine shortages in England ‘beyond critical’, pharmacists warn

Drug shortages in England are now at such critical levels that patients are at risk of immediate harm and even death, pharmacists have warned.

The situation is so serious that pharmacists increasingly have to issue “owings” to patients – telling someone that only part of their prescription can be dispensed and asking them to come back for the rest of it later, once the pharmacist has sourced the remainder.

Hundreds of different drugs have become hard or impossible to obtain, according to Community Pharmacy England (CPE), which published the report. Widespread and often long-lasting shortages posed “immediate risks to patient health and wellbeing” and caused distress, it said.

“The medicine supply challenges being faced by community pharmacies and their patients are beyond critical,” said Janet Morrison, CPE’s chief executive. “Patients with a wide range of clinical and therapeutic needs are being affected on a daily basis and this is going far beyond inconvenience, leading to frustration, anxiety and affecting their health.

CPE, which represents England’s 10,500 community pharmacies, based its findings on a survey of the views of owners of 6,100 pharmacy premises and 2,000 of their staff. It found:

  • 79% of pharmacy staff said that medicine shortages were putting patient health at risk.
  • 91% of pharmacy owners had seen a “significant increase” in the problem since last year.
  • 99% of pharmacy workers found a drug was unavailable at least weekly, and 72% encountered that several times a day.

Pharmacists are finding themselves on the receiving end of abuse and hostility from patients who are frustrated and angered by not being able to get the drugs they have been prescribed.

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Source: Guardian, 9 May 2024

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Medicine shortages ‘around double what they were a year ago’

Medicine shortages have increased and are “around double what they were a year ago”, it has been claimed.

Speaking to the Health and Social Care Committee on Monday, Mark Samuels, chief executive of the British Generic Manufacturers Association (BGMA), said they have been highlighting the medicine shortage risk to ministers since July 2021 and the BGMA is “very concerned about it”.

He said: “We’ve been monitoring it for several years now, and as you saw in the written evidence, shortages have increased.

“They’re around double what they were a year ago. We have them at 101 shortages in February this year.”

We've just been hearing devastating stories from people about the emotional toll it's sort of taking on them not being able to access vital medications.

The shortage of certain medications “continues to be challenging”, Dr Rick Greville, director of distribution and supply at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), told the committee.

But when asked if the shortage is getting better or worse, he said it is “difficult to know as to whether it is increasing significantly, but certainly it’s a long-standing issue”.

Meanwhile, there is “serious concern” about the potential harm to people with diabetes due to a shortage of medication, the committee was told.

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Source: Evening Standard, 20 February 2024

Have you (or a loved one) ever been prescribed medication that you were then unable to get hold of at the pharmacy? 

To help us understand how these issues impact the lives of patients and families, please share your experience and insights in our community thread on the topic: 

Medication supply issues: have you been affected?

You'll need to register with the hub first, its free and easy to do. 

We would also like to hear from pharmacists working in community or hospital settings, and others who have insights to share on this issue. What barriers and challenges have you seen around medication availability? Is there anything that can be done to improve wider systems or processes?

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Medical treatment denied to sick and disabled people in hotel quarantine

It has been reported that people in quarantine due to having flown in from overseas, were denied medical treatment when they needed it.

Among them, included a baby needing urgent treatment and was stopped from going to Accident and Emergency and a man who had suffered a heart attack. 

In what has been described as a breach of the law, people quarantined in the hotels in the London area were denied basic facilities and medical treatment. After legal intervention, the government has issued an order to release certain individuals from the hotel after it was found their health was impacted by the quarantine. 

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Source: The Independent, 20 June 2021

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Medical training in England needs major overhaul, says landmark review

Training bottlenecks are leaving many resident doctors without a job and must be “urgently” tackled as part of an overhaul of postgraduate medical training, a landmark NHS review recommends.

Competition ratios “are now too high” in many specialties, causing major bottlenecks in training that “do not benefit anyone,” the report from England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty and former national medical director Stephen Powis concludes.

The “diagnostic” report is the first phase of a review representing the biggest overhaul of postgraduate medical training in England for more than 15 years. It was ordered in February in response to grievances from resident doctors about the current training process.

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Source: BMJ News, 24 October 2025

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Medical regulator faces questions over board members’ links to drug firms

The UK medicines watchdog has been urged to strengthen its conflict of interest policy after it emerged that six of its board members are receiving payments from the pharmaceutical industry.

Board members involved in overseeing the regulator’s “strategic direction” also have financial interests in companies including US and Saudi drug giants and firms with ambitions to break into the UK’s healthcare market. Some offer consultancy services while others help run or own shares in drug and medical device firms, according to official transparency records.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing, but the findings have led to concerns about perceived conflicts of interest among senior figures at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care responsible for regulating drugs and medical devices and ensuring they are safe.

The MHRA said that “in order to be an effective regulator” it needed to “bring together the right expertise from across industry, academia, the public and beyond”, adding that board meetings are held in public and non-executive board members – to whom the potential conflicts relate – are not involved in “any work or decisions relating to the regulation of any products”.

But critics raised concerns about the potential for bias – or the perception of it – and called for stricter rules on conflicts of interest for those working in pharmaceutical regulation.

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Source: The Guardian, 17 April 2022

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Medical records changed as hospitals cover up mistakes, watchdog warns

Hospitals are still covering up serious mistakes in patient care and fobbing off families that raise concerns, the head of the watchdog that investigates complaints against the NHS has warned.

Rob Behrens told The Times he had seen cases of medical records being changed after a death and spoken to doctors who were too scared to speak out about failings in their hospitals.

He called on ministers to change the law to introduce a “duty of candour” on health and other public service staff to “transform” the system and make it more accountable to patients.

He warned: “There is a deep reluctance to explain and give an account of what you do in the health service or the public service for fear of retribution. The things that really get to me are the avoidable deaths of babies in the health service — dying because there’s been poor coordination or they’d been wrongly diagnosed or the parents hadn’t been listened to. That is shocking.”

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Source: The Times. 6 March 2023

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Medical neglect contributed to mother's death, inquest finds

A family say their mother was let down in the worst possible way when she died after being sent home from hospital with a blood clot on her lungs.

Sue Howell, from Bilston, died from a pulmonary embolism, a clot in the blood vessel connecting the heart with the lungs.

An inquest heard test results were available which would have alerted medical staff, but they were not acted upon.

The Black Country assistant coroner Helena Gallagher gave a narrative conclusion, noting the 73-year-old's death was contributed to by neglect in the medical treatment she received at New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton.

In evidence, a doctor told the inquest she did not know the D-Dimer test had been requested and it was not in the patient's notes, despite the result being available several hours before the mother was sent home.

In a statement, the hospital apologised for "not providing the standard of care we strive for" and said an investigation since the patient's death had led to "several actions".

Related reading on the hub:

 

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Medical neglect by London NHS trust contributed to suicide of girl, 12, rules coroner

Medical neglect and “gross failures” by a mental health trust contributed to the suicide of a 12-year-old girl in a case that has highlighted national concerns about underfunding, a coroner has ruled.

Allison Aules from Redbridge, in north-east London, died in July last year after her mood changed completely during the Covid lockdown, her family told the inquest at an east London coroner’s court.

At the conclusion of the inquest, the area coroner Nadia Persaud highlighted a series of failures by North East London NHS foundation trust (NELFT) that contributed to her death. In a narrative verdict she ruled it was a “suicide contributed to by neglect”.

Persaud also said failures in Allison’s care raised wider national issues about under-resourcing and “outstanding concerns” about the lack of consultant psychiatrists.

These will be addressed later in a prevention of future deaths report. Persaud told the court: “There are national concerns around children and adolescent mental health services … and I’m also going to write a report at the national level to reduce the risk of this happening again.”

Persaud said Allison’s case showed “both operational failures of individual practitioners and systemic failings on behalf of the trust”. She added: “This was on a backdrop of a very under-resourced service.”

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Source: The Guardian, 17 August 2023

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Medical leaders call for arbitration to resolve junior doctors’ dispute

Medical leaders have called for third-party arbitration to break the impasse on a pay dispute between junior doctors and the government after hundreds of thousands of procedures and appointments were cancelled as a result of last week’s strike in England.

The “colossal impact” of the four-day stoppage compounded by a health service already stretched by the coronavirus pandemic and facing workplace shortages has led the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AoMRC) to intervene and urge both parties to engage with an independent organisation.

The AoMRC, the membership body for the UK and Ireland’s 24 medical royal colleges and faculties, said in a statement it was “concerned that a solution has not yet been reached and about the anticipated impact on NHS services and patients that will potentially follow any future action”.

It added: “Both parties need to rapidly engage with an independent organisation to work out how the deadlock can be broken for the sake of patients and the wider NHS.”

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Source: The Guardian, 20 April 2023

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Medical leaders back rise in number of physician associates

Medical leaders support a planned increase in the number of physician associates (PA) in the NHS.

But the British Medical Association (BMA) is concerned about a new law allowing the General Medical Council (GMC) to regulate PAs, who must be supervised by a fully qualified doctor.

The doctors' union says it blurs the lines between doctors and PAs and could risk patient safety.

Two families whose relatives were seen by PAs want the roles defined.

The NHS has 3,286 PAs, who assist healthcare teams and are not authorised to prescribe or request scans.

PAs and anaesthetic associates (AA) qualify after a funded two-year master's degree. They often have a science undergraduate degree, but that is not a prerequisite.

Their role includes taking medical histories, conducting physical examinations and developing treatment plans.

Like PAs, AAs are healthcare professionals who work as part of a multidisciplinary team with supervision from a named senior doctor.

The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges said on Tuesday that it welcomes a push to increase the number of PAs in the NHS, but that it is "vital" that there are clear guidelines on how they are deployed.

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Source: BBC News, 5 March 2024

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Medical jargon putting patients in harm's way

Patients are struggling to understand their doctors because of confusing medical jargon, a study has found.

Almost 80% of people do not know that the word 'impressive' actually means 'worrying' in a medical context.

Critics said using the word borders on 'disrespectful' because 'we're describing something as impressive that is causing real harm for patients'.

More than one in five of respondents could not work out the phrase 'your tumour is progressing', which means a patient's cancer is worsening.

And the majority of participants failed to recognise that 'positive lymph nodes' meant the cancer had spread.

The word 'impressive' means something admirable to most people. But when physicians describe a chest X-ray as impressive, they actually mean it is worrying. Some 79% of study participants did not get this meaning. Only 44 participants correctly understood that a clinician was actually giving them bad news.  

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Source: Mail Online, 1 December 2022

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Medical expert witnesses ‘should not scapegoat doctors’

Medical experts in cases involving doctors should have a mandatory duty to consider systems issues such as inadequate staffing levels to avoid them being scapegoated for wider failures, the Medical Protection Society (MPS) has said.

The MPS, which supports the the professional interests of more than 300,000 healthcare professionals around the world, says medical expert reports focus on scrutinising the actions of the individual doctor even when failings are a result of the setting in which they work.

Its report on the issue, shared with the Guardian before publication, points out that for doctors “adverse opinion can lead to loss of career or liberty”.

It references the case of Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba who was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter in 2015 and handed a 24-month suspended sentence for her part in the death of six-year-old Jack Adcock from sepsis. She was later struck off by the General Medical Council before the court of appeal overturned the GMC’s decision.

Dr Rob Hendry, the MPS medical director, said: “In giving an opinion on whether or not the care provided by a doctor has fallen short of a reasonable standard, it would seem fair to the doctor that the medical expert considers all relevant circumstances. Any individual performance concerns must of course be addressed, but doctors should not be scapegoats for the failings of the settings in which they work. Sadly, we see this all too often in cases against doctors …

“Many expert reports focus solely on the actions of the individual without considering the wider context. In reality, patient harm arising from medical error is rarely attributable to the actions of a single individual. Inadequate staffing levels, lack of resources, or faulty IT systems are just some issues which can contribute to adverse incidents. Doctors confront these issues every day and have little influence over them.”

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Source: The Guardian, 18 July 2022

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Medical errors claim lives of 18-20% hospitalised patients in Pakistan

A staggering 18-20% of hospitalised patients in Pakistan lose their lives due to medical errors, negligence, misadministration of drugs, and deadly hospital-acquired infections, experts have warned.

Speaking at a press conference ahead of the Patient Safety and Quality Healthcare Conference hosted by Aga Khan University (AKU) in April and organised by Riphah Institute of Healthcare, leading healthcare professionals called for urgent reforms to improve patient safety in hospitals across the country.

The press conference was addressed by Executive Director of Riphah International, Asadullah Khan, Executive Director of NICVD, Prof Dr Tahir Saghir, Chairman of Patient Safety, Dr Zakiuddin, and Sayed Jamshed Ahmed.

Dr Zakiuddin pointed out that several errors occur during medical treatment, including wrong drug prescriptions, incorrect injections, surgical complications, and hospital-acquired infections.

“The World Health Organization (WHO) has been consistently raising awareness about patient safety, yet many developing countries, including Pakistan, continue to struggle with high rates of medical errors,” he said.

He stressed the need for specialized training for medical staff and the adoption of modern patient safety systems to curb preventable mistakes. “There must be a culture where doctors and nurses acknowledge their errors and work toward rectifying them rather than concealing mistakes,” he added.

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Source: Business Recorder, 3 March 2025

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Medical errors are still harming patients. AI could help change that

Despite ongoing efforts to improve patient safety, it’s estimated that at least 1 in 20 patients still experience medical mistakes in the health care system. One of the most common categories of mistakes is medication errors, where for one reason or another, a patient is given either the wrong dose of a drug or the wrong drug altogether. In the US, these errors injure approximately 1.3 million people a year and result in one death each day, according to the World Health Organization.

In response, many hospitals have introduced guardrails, ranging from colour coding schemes that make it easier to differentiate between similarly named drugs, to barcode scanners that verify that the correct medicine has been given to the correct patient.

Despite these attempts, medication mistakes still occur with alarming regularity.

Dr Kelly Michaelsen, an assistant professor of anaesthesiology and pain medicine at the University of Washington wondered whether emerging technologies could help.

As both a medical professional and a trained engineer, it struck her that spotting an error about to be made, and alerting the anaesthesiologists in real time, should be within the capabilities of AI. “I was like, ‘This seems like something that shouldn’t be too hard for AI to do,’” she said. “Ninety-nine percent of the medications we use are these same 10-20 drugs, and so my idea was that we could train an AI to recognize them and act as a second set of eyes.”

Michaelsen focused on vial swap errors, which account for around 20% of all medication mistakes.

All injectable drugs come in labelled vials, which are then transferred to a labelled syringe on a medication cart in the operating room. But in some cases, someone selects the wrong vial, or the syringe is labelled incorrectly, and the patient is injected with the wrong drug.

Michaelsen thought such tragedies could be prevented through “smart eyewear” — adding an AI-powered wearable camera to the protective eyeglasses worn by all staff during operations. Working with her colleagues in the University of Washington computer science department, she designed a system that can scan the immediate environment for syringe and vial labels, read them and detect whether they match up.

In a study published late last year, Michaelsen reported that the device detected vial swap errors with 99.6% accuracy. All that’s left is to decide the best way for warning messages to be relayed and it could be ready for real-world use, pending Food and Drug Administration clearance. 

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Source: NBC News, 25 May 2025

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Medical director wins 'whistle blowing' unfair dismissal case

A former medical director on the Isle of Man, who lost her job when she questioned decisions made on the island during the COVID-19 pandemic, has won her case for unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal.

The hearing, which began in January, heard how Dr Rosalind Ranson was victimised and dismissed from her role after making 'protected disclosures' as part of her efforts to persuade the Manx Government to deviate from Public Health England (PHE) advice in the early stages of the pandemic.

Dr Ranson, who had extensive experience as a GP and as a senior medical leader in the NHS in England, was appointed to her post as the island's most senior doctor in January 2020 with the aim of tackling what she identified as a disillusioned medical workforce, failings in management, and a bullying culture.

She was soon called on to provide expert medical advice and guidance on how the Isle of Man’s health system should respond to the spread of COVID-19. In March, Dr Ranson channelled concerns from the island's doctors that the advice from PHE was flawed, and that a more robust approach should be taken to stem the spread of SARS-CoV-2. That included closing the island’s borders – a move that was initially ignored.

Dr Ranson became concerned that her medical advice was not being heeded and that it might not be being passed on to ministers by the then Chief Executive of the Isle of Man’s Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Kathryn Magson, who was not medically qualified.

The tribunal heard that because Dr Ranson had "blown the whistle" when she spoke out, she was sidelined and eventually dismissed unfairly.

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Source: Medscape, 11 May 2022

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Medical device regulation challenges put children's surgeries at risk

Research led by Trinity College in Ireland has found that a regulation which came into effect in May 2021 with the aim of improving the oversight of medical devices in Ireland is leading to unintended consequences which may put some surgeries for children, and the treatment of rare diseases, at risk. The study has been published in the journal Pediatric Cardiology.

Medical devices include a great diversity of technologies, which are evaluated and approved in the European Union (EU) according to a revised law that came into effect on 26 May 2021, known as the Medical Device Regulation or MDR (EU 745/2017). It has a transition period that allows products that were approved under the previous rules (the EU Medical Device Directives) to continue to be marketed until 26 May 2024 at the latest. As a result of a series of unforeseen factors, there is a possibility that the MDR may result in products becoming unavailable, with the consequent risk of a loss of some interventions that are reliant upon those devices. Devices that are used for orphan or paediatric indications are particularly vulnerable to this.

The paper provides an example of one device, the Rashkind balloon catheter, first developed by Dr William Rashkind in 1966 to open the upper chambers in the heart in neonates with congenital heart disease. A number of these balloons were once available in Europe and now there is only one. This device may become unavailable next year. If this happens, it will not be possible to continue this procedure, and alternative surgeries or treatments are far less optimal. The paper also describes the timeline and cost of bringing the device to market in the EU, the US and Canada, and the cost and time needed to access the EU market has become much greater. 

Researchers believe there is now an urgent need for policy to be developed to protect essential medical devices for orphan indications and for use in children, to ensure that necessary interventions can continue, and to ensure a more sustainable system in Europe over the longer term.

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Source: Trinity College Dublin, 20 October 2022

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Medical device companies pay millions to NHS while pushing products, says study

Medical device companies are paying millions of pounds to hospitals in the UK to fund staff places, as well as training and awareness campaigns, while pushing sales of their products, including implants, heart valves and diagnostic equipment, a new report reveals.

An analysis of disclosures by medical device companies found that between 2017 and 2019 they reported €425m (£367m at today’s rates) in payments to healthcare organisations in Europe, according to the study in the journal Health Policy and Technology.

The businesses reported paying more than €37m to hospitals and other healthcare bodies in the UK over the three-year period. The disclosures include payments to some of the biggest hospital trusts in England.

James Larkin, one of the authors of the study and a postdoctoral researcher at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, said the filings did not include consultancy fees for medical staff and many companies did not register their payments. “This is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “There is a huge number of payments that are not being disclosed. The descriptions for payments which are disclosed are very vague and it is not completely clear what they are for.”

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Source: The Guardian, 20 April 2024

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Medical breakthrough could help thousands in UK living with an aggressive type of breast cancer

Thousands of women living in the UK suffering from an aggressive type of breast cancer could be helped by a newly identified drug, according to a study.

The research, carried out by The Institute of Cancer Research, found medicine presently used to help other breast cancers that have spread to another area of the body, could actually be utilised to help around a fifth of women who have triple negative breast cancer.

Around 55,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in Britain each year, with approximately one in five of these being triple negative. Younger women and black women are more likely to develop this form of breast cancer which is generally more aggressive.

Researchers’ realisation the drug palbociclib could be used far more widely than previously thought could “provide a much-needed targeted treatment” for those who are at higher risk of witnessing their cancer spread more quickly, becoming incurable and often unresponsive to conventional chemotherapy.

Dr Simon Vincent, of Breast Cancer Now, a leading charity which funded the study, said: “It’s hugely exciting that this research has uncovered a new possible use for palbociclib as a targeted treatment for some women living with triple negative breast cancer."

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Source: The Independent, 28 January 2021

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