NHS England wants to standardise local drug formulary teams and operations while it develops a single national formulary over the next two years, HSJ has learned.
The centre wants to bring more consistency to local formulary operations while it works on the SNF, one of the biggest changes to national policy in July’s 10-Year Health Plan, which was exclusively revealed by HSJ.
A formulary is a list of medicines that have been approved for use by the regulator and are considered cost and clinically effective in treating specific conditions. Currently, there are multiple local formularies overseen by prescribing committees.
The SNF will introduce a nationally managed list with the overall aim of driving “rapid and equitable adoption of clinically and cost-effective innovations”, according to a letter seen by HSJ. NHSE sent the letter to regional and integrated care board chief pharmacists and medical directors last week.
“The SNF will be designed to help address inequity and variation in the use of approved medicines across the country. Whilst local clinicians, including pharmacists, will retain clinical autonomy, they will be encouraged to use products ranked highly in the SNF,” it explained.
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Source: HSJ, 24 October 2025
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