OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to identify and assess the efficacy of pharmaceutical care services in various pharmaceutical aspects throughout seventeen Middle Eastern nations.
METHOD: The Arkesy and O'Malley technique was used to conduct a scoping review. It was conducted using PubMed/Medline, Scopus, Cochrane Library, Springer Link, Clinical Trials, and Web of Science etc. The Van Tulder Scale was utilized in randomized trials research, whereas the dawn and black checklists were used in non-randomized trials research. A descriptive and numerical analysis of selected research was done. The scope of eligible PCs, pharmaceutical implementers, study outcomes, and quality were all identified by a thematic review of research.
RESULTS: There were about 431,753 citations found in this study, and 129 publications were found to be eligible for inclusion after analysing more than 271 full-text papers. The study design was varied, with 43 (33.3%) RCTs and 86 (66.7%) n-RCTs. Thirty-three (25.6%) of the studies were published in 2020. Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey were home to the majority of the studies (25.6%, 16.3%, and 11.6%) respectively. Thirty-seven studies (19.7%) were concerned with resolving drug related problems (DRPs), whereas 27 (14.4%) were concerned with increasing quality of life (QOL) and 23 (12.2%) with improving drug adherence. Additionally, the research revealed that the average ratings of the activities provided to patients improved every year.
CONCLUSION: Studies in the Middle East continue to provide evidence supporting the positive impact of pharmaceutical care services on both hard and soft outcomes measured in most studies. Yet there was rare focus on the value of the implemented services. Thus, rigorous evaluation of the economic impact of implemented pharmaceutical care services in the Middle East and assessment of their sustainability is must.
METHODS: All pharmacists attending the Malaysian Community Pharmacy Guild event held in-person were invited to self-administer a web-based survey.
KEY FINDINGS: The response rate was 61% (168/276). Overall, community pharmacists have mixed knowledge (mean ± SD: 5.89 ± 1.38) and positive attitude (mean ± SD: 9.58 ± 0.81) towards household pharmaceutical waste disposal. However, few community pharmacists (18/168, 10.7%) have promotional materials encouraging safe medication disposal in their pharmacies.
CONCLUSIONS: Community pharmacists do not proactively promote safe household pharmaceutical waste disposal to mitigate pharmaceutical pollutants entering the environment although they have satisfactory knowledge and attitude.
METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This is a prospective direct observational study that will be conducted in five neonatal intensive care units. A minimum sample size of 820 drug preparations and administrations will be observed. Data including patient characteristics, drug preparation-related and administration-related information and other procedures will be recorded. After each round of observation, the observers will compare his/her observations with the prescriber's medication order, hospital policies and manufacturer's recommendations to determine whether MAE has occurred. To ensure reliability, the error identification will be independently performed by two clinical pharmacists after the completion of data collection for all study sites. Any disagreements will be discussed with the research team for consensus. To reduce overfitting and improve the quality of risk predictions, we have prespecified a priori the analytical plan, that is, prespecifying the candidate predictor variables, handling missing data and validation of the developed model. The model's performance will also be assessed. Finally, various modes of presentation formats such as a simplified scoring tool or web-based electronic risk calculators will be considered.
AIM: To determine the survival outcomes of New Zealand patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma treated with pembrolizumab or nivolumab.
METHODS: This is a national retrospective cohort study. Patients with advanced unresectable or metastatic melanoma who received publicly funded immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) from 2017 to 2019 were included. Individual patient data were extracted from national administrative databases. The primary endpoint was OS, and secondary endpoints included OS by age, duration of treatment, posttreatment survival, and 30-day mortality from last pharmaceutical claim.
RESULTS: Five hundred ninety-seven patients were included, with a median follow-up of 25 months. One-year OS was 72%, the 2-year OS estimate was 60%, and median OS not reached. Survival did not differ by dichotomized age (≥70 vs. <70 year old), hazard ratio (HR) .94 (95% confidence interval (CI): .72-1.22; p = .62). Median duration of treatment was 9.0 months (95% CI: 7.9-10.1). Median post-treatment survival for the subgroup who had ceased treatment was 12.0 months (95% CI: 9.0-14.0). For the sample as a whole, the estimated 30-day mortality from last pharmaceutical claim was 15.7%.
CONCLUSION: OS in our New Zealand real-world population is comparable to pivotal clinical trials and real-world data (RWD) from other countries. These findings support the achievement of health gains from use of ICI in advanced unresectable and metastatic melanoma.
METHODS: As one voice, 13 main industry associations under the umbrella of APAC sent joint letters to our National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) with a call to maintain regulatory agility and consider new ways of working. Consequently, APAC surveyed its member associations to measure regulatory agilities implemented by the NRAs during 2020 and 2021 in view of the pandemic.
RESULTS: This paper reports progress in implementing regulatory agility, e.g. the number of economies that can accept electronic Certificate of Pharmaceutical Products (eCPP) has reached 100% for the economies that require CPP and more than 90% can waive onsite inspection in the presence of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certificate and/or inspection report. The paper also features the progress made in Malaysia, the Philippines, and the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) regional reliance initiative to reduce inefficiencies and duplications.
CONCLUSIONS: We have demonstrated the power of working together to enable regulatory agilities and efficiencies. APAC will continue to track the progress of all economies including India within the areas for improvement prioritized and discussed in this paper. APAC is also committed to working with key stakeholders including our NRAs in Asia to sustain and enable a new era of innovation ushered in by COVID-19 to benefit patients.