There is a “really significant opportunity” for community pharmacy in new weight loss jab services, England’s CPhO has revealed.
C+D yesterday (June 12) asked David Webb at the NHS Confed Expo in Manchester what new opportunities the imminent 10-year health plan could hold for pharmacy.
He responded that pharmacies could play a part in the rollout of a tirzepatide service – the glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) drug licensed for weight loss under the name Mounjaro.
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“We know with the tirzepatide rollout that there is flexibility on the commissioning model that can be used to deliver the primary care elements of that service,” he told C+D.
“So I think there’s a really significant opportunity to anchor preventative thinking in communities in that sort of setting,” Webb added.
“Prices will drop”
Also speaking on weight loss drugs in a separate session at the conference, NHS England (NHSE) national medical director Sir Stephen Powis stressed that “we are at the very early stages of learning how to use these drugs” and “there is more to learn”.
He said that addressing obesity is “not just about the drugs, it’s around giving advice on nutrition...[and] sustaining weight loss”, among other things.
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“We certainly shouldn’t be starry eyed about them...they’re not a silver bullet,” he told delegates, noting that “they are a very important component” of how the NHS addresses obesity, but that “we need to learn more about these drugs” as “we will see more problems coming through”.
And England’s chief medical officer (CMO) Professor Chris Whitty similarly stressed that GLP-1 RAs are “not a get out of jail card”.
Powis also briefly touched on the pricing of these drugs, saying that “we will get to the stage of generics” for them and “prices will drop” in the future.
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The comments come after Community Pharmacy England (CPE) NHS services director Alastair Buxton last month revealed that a pharmacy weight loss service could be commissioned “in due course”.
It followed reports claiming that a multimillion-pound deal “with a major pharmaceutical firm” is set to fund a national NHS weight loss jab prescription pilot in pharmacies.
Expanded whooping cough service?
Meanwhile, Webb also hinted at an expanded pertussis – also known as whooping cough - pharmacy service.
He stressed the importance of the “flexibility to do things differently” in vaccination services.
Read more: NHSE seeks pharmacies for RSV and whooping cough jab service
“The role pharmacies are playing in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccination, potentially pertussis vaccination too…seems very important,” he said.
In March, NHSE published a tender for “up to 66” pharmacy sites to provide a community pharmacy RSV and pertussis vaccination enhanced service within the Midlands region.
