Browsing by discipline "Socialfarmaci"

Health related issues are largely regulated at EU Member State level, whereas areas such as internal market and competition fall mainly under the remit of European Union competence. This creates tension not only between legislation governing health and that concerning internal market but also between national and EU legislation. Here the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) plays a key role in developing case-law through its judgments, defining further interpretation both on European and national level. An example of a sector operating at the interphase between public health and internal market interests is community pharmacy, which was chosen as the focus area of the study. The aim of this master's thesis was, through the case-study example of the regulation of pharmacy establishment, ownership and distribution in EU Member States, to perform a documentary analysis on related CJEU judgments, focusing on statements present in them referring to public health and internal market, discussing potential impacts on the community pharmacy sector as well as relating the outcomes to the broader context of European health policy with reference to existing literature. The study material consisted of publicly available documentation related to four judgments (Case C-531/06, Joined Cases C-171/07 and C-172/07, Joined Cases C-570/07 and C-571/07 and Case C-367/12) that were made between the years 2009 and 2014, the first proceedings initiating in 2006. The prevalence and variety of statements related to public health were found to be much higher in the documents analysed compared to those relating to internal market. The most common argumentation present in the judgments was related to the statement that regulation of ownership of community pharmacies can be justified by public health reasons, deriving from the professionalism inherent to pharmacists as well as ensuring balance between public health and economic interests. This transmits a clear message of the importance of public health and indeed the Court has been perceived as a balancing force to the union's liberalisation agenda. Following this it seems unlikely that the interpretation for national regulation would change in the near future, meaning that Member States should be able to maintain community pharmacy regulation, to the extent that it is implemented in a consistent manner. However, there has been indication of other routes being used to push for the liberalisation agenda and therefore it continues being a part of the debate both at European and national level. The findings of this study support literature suggesting that spillover is taking place in relation to the Court of Justice and health. Furthermore, it has been clearly demonstrated that even though officially the EU has very limited competence (authority) in health, its influence on European health policy is in fact highly significant, taking place to a large extent via routes other than those officially assigned to it in relation to health in particular. Whether this is intentional or unintentional, it does not change the fact that health policy is being influenced. When it happens without explicit intention, the processes lose transparency and are driven by other, potentially competing agendas. Therefore it would be important to assess whether the decision making processes and other processes currently shaping the European healthcare policy are in line with what was originally intended and re-evaluate whether this dynamic is the preferred way to proceed in the future.

The development and maintenance of the pharmaceutical workforce's know-how ensure the availability of medicinal consulting and service. Healthcare personnel in Finland are bound by law to uphold and improve their workmanship. Furthermore, a pharmacy owner is legally obliged to keep track of the development of healthcare professional's skills and to ensure the staff's sufficient participation for continuing education (CE). Pharmacists' development and maintenance of professional skills is not linked to preservation of professional competence in Finland. The goal of this study was to get a general view of the development and maintenance of professional skills of pharmacists working in community pharmacies as well as applicaple methods. Additionally, the aim was to determine whether community pharmacists' development of professional skills is systematical. As background material in this thesis, a sub-material of an online study regarding development and maintenance of professional skills was used, which was carried out by the Finnish Pharmacists' Association in September 2013 and it consists of 430 pharmacists' responses who work in community pharmacies. The results show that the methods community pharmacists use to develop and maintain their professional skills are diverse. The recommendation by the authorities is at least three days of CE for one person per year but the majority (83 %) of the participants of this study didn't follow it. Some of the pharmacists develop and maintain their professional skills by attending diligently CE's while the number of pharmacists who do not attend any CE has risen. The number of pharmacists who did not participate in any CE was 26 % in the year prior to this study. The results might point to changes in learning methods or the decline of CE activity. The results of this thesis show that development of professional skills was not systematical in the majority of the pharmacies. An annual personal develompent plan was drawn up in 24 % of the respondents' workplaces and development discussions were had in few. Independent planning, monitoring and evaluation of their own professional skill development were done by 10 % of the pharmacists. The planning of professional skill development was not found to impact CE participation. Development discussions and training schedules that are drawn up in workplaces were found to increase pharmacists' independent planning of their professional skills.

The aged are the biggest age group of using psychotropics. The most used ones of these drugs are hypnotic and sedatives that consists mainly of benzodiazepines and related drugs. However, the aged are extremely sensitive for these drugs that are also noted as potentially inappropriate drugs for the aged in the national, but also in the various international recommendations and care guidelines. Despite the care guidelines, benzodiazepine compounds are usually used for years and often concomitantly. Research material of this longitudinal, observational study with two cohorts was collected from structured interviews at two similar acute wards in Pori City Hospital during one month in 2015. The research protocol of an early similar study which was conducted in 2004 was followed. Results of the two studies (2004 and 2015) were compared. Interviews were conducted among patients aged ≥ 65 years. Users of benzodiazepines or related drugs (2004: n=38, 2015: n=32) were further interviewed. The aim of this study was to compare the characteristics of the usage of benzodiazepine compounds in the aged between the years 2004 and 2015. In particular the medicines information sources and amount of information on these drugs i.e. knowledge on adverse drug reactions was studied and compared. Additionally a systematic review was conducted to explore the current evidence on interventions to rationalize the use of benzodiazepines and related drugs in the aged. In 2004, 54% of the interviewed patients (n=64) were using benzodiazepine compounds. However, in 2015 there were 34% (n=36) using. In 2015 regular usage of these drugs was decreased and irregular usage (given on an as-needed basis) was increased compared to the year 2004. None of the patients used long-acting benzodiazepines in 2015. Medicines information is provided notably more by doctors and pharmacies to 2004, but still the information focused more on benefits of drug other than adverse drug reactions. However, the patients' knowledge about the adverse drug reactions of benzodiazepine compounds has increased. The patients got presented adverse drug reactions known on mean of five in the year 2015, while the same value in 2004 was three. In the both years, the most of the patients were aware of the dependence these drugs may cause. The usage of benzodiazepine and related drugs in the aged has become better, but there is still need to improve multi-professional cooperation and applicate new interventions for rationalize the usage of benzodiazepinecompounds.

Biological medicines are gaining ground in drug therapy. However, biological medicines are considerably expensive. Top ten drugs that caused the most drug reimbursement expenses included six biological drugs in Finland in 2017. A biosimilar is a biological medicine which is highly similar to another biological medicine (the reference medicine) that has already approved. Biosimilar prices are cheaper than the original medicines because their clinical development program does not have to be as extensive. A wide use of biosimilars save costs for both the patient and society without changing the effectiveness of drug therapy. The aim of this study is to investigate the automatic substitution of biological drugs containing the same active ingredient, especially from the point of view of medication safety. The study was conducted as a systematic literature review. Literature search was carried out by using Pubmed and Scopus databases. The literature was also searched manually from references of the articles and from the industry experts. The literature search produced a total of 454 articles after the deletion of duplicates. A title, abstract and full text screening was conducted by two independent researchers. All in all, 65 articles met the inclusion criteria of the study. As no studies were found on the automatic substitution of biological medicines from the point of view of medication safety, it was decided to include in the study original studies investigating the substitution of biological drugs from the point of view of doctors (n=8), pharmacists (n=3), patients (n=1) and various stakeholders (n=2). The original studies were all surveys except one study. In addition, the review included statements of various medical associations and organizations (n=23), descriptive reviews (n=27), and expert views (n=2) on the automatic substitution of biological drugs. According to the results of the original studies (n=13), it can be stated that automatic substitution is not considered generally acceptable. Doctors consider it is very important that the pharmacist informs them if substitution occurs. They also think it’s critical that doctors should be able to prevent substitution. Patients are also sceptical about the substitution of biological drugs. The quality of the original studies was assessed by the generalizability of the research results. The generalizability of the results of the original studies is weak due to the methodological shortcomings of the studies. Although the automatic substitution of biological drugs is legal in some countries, such as in France and in Australia, it has not been studied from the point of view of medication safety. In order to be safe to implement automatic substitution of biological medicines, more should be investigated on the subject. From the point of view of medication safety, healthcare professionals and patients will need further target group education on biosimilars. In addition, it should be clarified what kind of education the healthcare professionals and patients would need if the automatic substitution of biological medicines was to be realized.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease with prevalence of 0.8% among Finnish adult population. Consequent medical treatment, joint replacement surgery and productivity losses lead to significant expenses for society. While biological treatments for RA are costly, they can improve patients' quality of life and work participation. Economic evaluations provide information on the benefits and costs of these expensive treatments to aid optimal utilization of limited healthcare resources. This master`s thesis comprises the description of the Finnish Current Care Guidelines for RA, the cost of biological treatments and the principles of economic evaluations and health technology assessment. A systematic literature review was performed to identify existing studies examining the cost-effectiveness of biological treatments for RA. Of the 4890 references found with the literature search, 38 original studies and 9 previous systematic reviews were included in the current systematic literature review. Details of the methods as well as information on treatments, costs, benefits and incremental cost-effectiveness were extracted. Quality of the original studies was evaluated using quality assessment tools. Ninety percent (34/38) of the original studies used cost-utility modeling approach. Quality of life estimates were derived from RA specific health assessment questionnaire in a majority of the studies. Based on the current systematic literature review, the evidence on the cost-effectiveness of biological treatments is inconsistent. The incremental cost-effectiveness of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) blockers was 13 500-772 000 €/ quality adjusted life year (QALY) in comparison to conventional disease modifying anti rheumatic drugs (DMARD) among patients without previous treatment with DMARDs. Several studies reported incremental cost-effectiveness ratios over 100 000 €/QALY in this population. Among patients with insufficient response to DMARDs, TNF blockers provided incremental cost-effectiveness ratios between 6 700 and 317 000 €/QALY. In most studies Rituximab was found to be a cost-effective alternative in contrast to other treatments among patients with insufficient response to TNF blockers. Biological treatments are not cost-effective among patients naïve to conventional DMARDs. Meanwhile, in patients with previous DMARD failure TNF-blockers might be cost-effective. The evidence on the cost effectiveness of biological treatments supports Finnish Current Care Guidelines. The quality assessment of the included studies revealed several sources of bias, consequently reducing the validity of the studies. Only a few of the conference abstracts in current subject has been published later as an article indicating existence of reporting bias. This study has several strengths. First, a comprehensive literature search was performed. Second, the quality of included studies was carefully evaluated. Finally, the methods and reporting are transparent. Weakness of the current study is one person extracting data and assessing the quality of the studies, which may reduce the reliability of this study. This systematic literature review is a basis for future studies examining cost-effectiveness of biological treatments in Finnish healthcare system.

Diabeetikoiden määrä lisääntyy jatkuvasti. Samalla hoitokulut ovat kasvaneet merkittävästi. Paras tapa hillitä kustannusten kasvua on hoitaa diabetesta mahdollisimman hyvin. Näin voidaan ehkäistä myös diabetekseen liittyvien oheissairauksien syntyä. Diabeteksen hoidossa on tärkeää kiinnittää huomiota hoidon jatkuvuuteen ja potilaan hoitoon sitoutumiseen. Apteekin henkilökunnan asema on noussut yhä keskeisemmäksi diabeetikon hoitoon sitoutumisen edistäjänä. Tämän pro gradu -tutkielman tavoitteena oli selvittää, mikä on apteekin farmaseuttisen henkilökunnan rooli diabetespotilaan hoitoon sitouttamisessa, elämäntapamuutosten toteuttamisessa ja niiden pysyvyyden varmistamisessa. Asiaa tarkasteltiin voimaantumisen teorian näkökulmasta. Tarkoituksena oli selvittää, miten voimaantuminen yksilössä tapahtuu, miten sitä voidaan apteekkineuvonnalla edistää ja mikä on apteekin rooli ulkopuolisena voimaannuttajana. Tämän tutkimuksen aineisto on kerätty Mäntyharjun Havu apteekissa ja se on osa laajempaa tutkimusta, jonka päätavoitteena on kehittää ja testata apteekkeihin soveltuva yksilökeskeinen toimintamalli tyypin 2 diabeteksen hoidon tukemiseen. Toimintamalli perustuu säännöllisiin neuvontatapaamisiin apteekissa. Pro gradu -tutkielmaan analysoitavaksi valittiin tutkimusjoukosta (n=19) ne, joilla tapahtui apteekkiohjelman aikana eniten positiivisia muutoksia yksilötasolla sekä elämäntapamittareilla mitatuissa arvoissa että kliinisissä parametreissa (n=4). Kvaliatiivisessa analyysissä käytettiin sekä deduktiivista että induktiivista lähestymistapaa. Vaikka diabeetikoilla oli tietoa sairaudesta ja elämäntapojen merkityksestä, niin käytännön tasolla jokainen henkilö kaipasi hoitoon ja erityisesti muutosten toteuttamiseen tukea ulkopuoliselta taholta. Apteekin rooli ulkopuolisena voimaannuttajana koettiin erityisen keskeiseksi. Tapaamiset loivat oikeanlaisen ympäristön ja ilmapiirin elämäntapamuutosten toteuttamiseen ja voimaantumisprosessin etenemiseen. Voimaantuminen ruokavaliomuutoksiin oli koko intervention aikana melko nousujohteinen prosessi. Sen sijaan voimaantuminen liikunnalliseen elämäntapaan oli aaltoilevaa. Apteekkitapaamiset sosiaalisena tapahtumana paransivat asiakkaan hoitoon sitoutumista. Asiakas koki, että häntä kohdellaan yksilönä kokonaisvaltaisesti. Voimaantuakseen yksilö tarvitsi aikaa. Vuoden mittaisen intervention aikana voitiin saavuttaa pysyviä muutoksia elämäntapoihin, mikäli yksilöllä itsellään oli halu ja motivaatio sitoutua tukiohjelmaan. Tämä tutkimus osoitti, että tämänkaltaista apteekkiohjelmaa tarvitaan. Nykyisessä kiireyhteiskunnassa ihmiset arvostavat, jos jollakin on aikaa paneutua yksilöön itseensä ja hänen sairautensa hoitoon kokonaisvaltaisesti.

Erenumab (Aimovig®) is a first-in-class calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) inhibitor approved for the preventive treatment of migraine by the FDA in May 2018 and by European Commission (EC) in July 2018. It is a human monoclonal antibody (mAb) binding to the CGRP receptor, antagonizing the effect of CGRP. The marketing authorization of Aimovig® was based on two phase II and two phase III clinical trials. In all trials, erenumab with doses 70 mg/mL and 140 mg/mL was found to have a significantly superior effect compared to placebo, with a similar safety profile between all groups. These conclusions are mainly in line with studies conducted post marketing authorization. However, questions about the optimal dose, and the frequency and types of adverse events in larger patient populations remain to be studied. A European Public Assessment Report (EPAR) and Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC) are required by the European Commission for each human medicine with a marketing authorization within the European Union. The SmPC is produced by the applicant and it should contain all relevant information of the medicinal product as distilled during the assessment process. The SmPC can thus be viewed as a kind of summarized version of the EPAR. The aim of this study was to investigate the post-marketing efficacy and safety information of erenumab from three perspectives: 1) the EPAR was compared with recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses assessing the efficacy and safety of erenumab, 2) all existing literature on the efficacy and safety of erenumab on different subgroups of migraine patients was assessed and summarized, and 3) the efficacy and safety information of the EPAR was compared to those of the SmPC, to resolve whether important information is missing. This review found several points regarding the efficacy and safety of erenumab. First, the status of erenumab was further established as a safe and effective treatment for the prevention of migraine. Second, meta-analyses (n=3) with more extensive cohorts compared to those of the EPAR and SmPC, present a further case for the superiority of the 140 mg dose compared to the 70 mg dose. The difference in dose effect is addressed in the EPAR but its assessment may be based on limited information. Third, different subgroups seem to respond differently to erenumab treatment. This aspect should be further investigated by head-to-head studies. Lastly, the safety information of the SmPC seems insufficient due to lack of mention of upper respiratory infections. This adverse event was among the most common in all of the four clinical trials and has since been observed in a real-world study. Based on these findings, neither the EPAR nor the SmPC of erenumab seem to be fully up to date and information related to the dose and upper respiratory infections as a risk should be reconsidered.

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a malignant hematologic disorder, which is fatal without a treatment. Oral tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have revolutionized the treatment of CML and transformed the disease to a chronic condition that can be treated at patient's home. The common problem in the treatment of CML is patient's poor adherence to TKIs. The regular, consistent use of TKIs is crucial to keep disease under control. For this reason and to obtain an optimal treatment outcome, adherence to TKIs is extremely important. The aim of the study was to assess reasons for poor adherence to TKI-medications in Finnish CMLpatients, including patient characteristics, treatment related factors, comorbidities and concomitant medications. In addition, patients' experiences, beliefs, knowledge and perception about CML and its treatment were explored and how these could contribute to nonadherent behaviour. This study is part of the larger study, assessing adherence to TKI treatment among Finnish CML population. The data was obtained by using patient questionnaires and semi-structured theme-interview during patient meetings in 2012. Study population consisted of Finnish adult CML patients who had been on TKI -medication (imatinib, nilotinib or dasatinib) for more than six months prior to the study baseline. Patients' adherence was measured using Morisky Medication Adherence 8-Item Scale (MMAS-8) and based on their score, patients were divided into three groups: high, medium and low adherence. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in data analysis. Study findings show that 21% (n=18) of the patients were low adherent and 23% (n=20) were high adherent to their treatment. Patient sociodemographic characteristics or experienced adverse drug reactions (ADRs) did not predict adherence, while more concomitant medications and comorbidities were associated with high adherence. However, ADRs had negative effect on the quality of life of several nonadherent patients. All nonadherent patients reported unintentional nonadherence and the most common reason was forgetting. Two-thirds of the patients (n=12) reported intentional nonadherence, which often was a result of experienced ADRs. The knowledge of CML and its treatment was poor among all patients while over half of the nonadherent patients (n=11) thought that they received enough information received. Overall, patients were very satisfied with care provided by the hospitals, physicians and other healthcare professionals. Managing TKI-treatment regimen is challenging for many patients and ADRs can have a negative impact on the quality of life. Healthcare professionals should regularly assess patient adherence and provide information and support for the patients to help them to succeed in medication management. Reasons for poor adherence are complex and have to be identified from each individual patient so that adherence can be improved.

The economic burden of adverse events (AEs) is substantial and in direct relation to current increasing drug utilisation. According to previous research, the annual cost of AEs in the U.S. may be as high as 22.9 billion euros. In Europe AEs are considered to contribute to 3.6 percent of hospital admissions, have an impact on 10 percent of inpatients during their hospital admission and are responsible for less than 0.5 percent of inpatient deaths. AEs thus clearly constitute a major clinical issue. Fluoroquinolones have been in clinical use since the 1980s and are globally among the most consumed antimicrobials. Fluoroquinolones are generally well tolerated antimicrobials. The most common AEs are mild and reversible, such as diarrhea, nausea and headaches. Nevertheless, fluoroquinolones are also associated with more serious AEs, including Clostridium difficile associated diarrhea (CDAD), rate-corrected electrocardiographic prolonged QT interval, tendinitis and tendon rupture, dysglycemia, hepatic toxicity, phototoxicity, acute renal failure and serious AEs involving the central nervous system, such as seizures. Health service use and costs specifically associated with fluoroquinolone-related AEs have not been evaluated previously. The theory section of this Marter's thesis considers adverse events and fluoroquinolones. The main principles of conducting a systematic review are also discussed. The empirical section is a systematic review. The aim of this study is to identify health care use and costs associated with ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, moxifloxacin, norfloxacin and ofloxacin -related AEs. A literature search covering Medline, SCOPUS, Cinahl, Web of Science and Cochrane Library was performed in April 2017. Two independent reviewers systematically extracted the data and assessed the quality of the included studies. All costs were converted to 2016 euro in order to improve comparability. Of the 5,687 references found in the literature search, 19 observational studies, of which 5 were case-controlled, fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Hospitalization was an AE-related health care use outcome in 17 studies. Length of stay associated with AEs varied between <5 - 45 days. The estimated cost of an AE episode ranged between 140 and 18,252 €. CDAD was associated with the longest stays in hospital. However, a mere 10 studies reported AE-related length of stays and only 5 evaluated costs associated with AEs. Although rare, in particular serious fluoroquinolone-related AEs can have substantial economic implications, in addition to imposing potentially devastating health complications for patients. Further measures are required to prevent and reduce health service use and costs associated with fluoroquinolone-related AEs. Equally, better-quality reporting and additional published data on health service use and costs associated with AEs are essential. The strengths of this study are a comprehensive and systematic literature search and transparency of methodologies and reporting. The main weakness is the generalizability of the results.

With advancing age the kidneys undergo anatomical and physiological changes. The most significant physiological changes are decreased renal blood flow and glomerular filtration rate (GFR). GFR is declined approximately in two thirds of the aged. Dosages of drugs eliminated mainly by the kidney should be adjusted carefully in patients with renal insufficiency. Nevertheless, according to earlier studies renal insufficiency among elderly patients is underdiagnosed and renal function is often overlooked when prescribing. Serum creatinine level is used as a screening test for renal dysfunction. However, it is a poor measure among elderly patients. Instead, calculated GFR should be the preferred method in estimating kidney function among this patient group. The aim of this study was to assess if comprehensive medication review can improve the quality of drug therapy among aged nursing home residents with impaired renal function. The data consisted of 153 comprehensive medication reviews (CMRs) conducted by Farenta Oy. CMR case reports were used to assess intervention recommendations made by pharmacists because of renal insufficiency, other kidney-related findings and resulting medication-related interventions. In addition, the prevalence of renal insufficiency, degree of renal insufficiency diagnoses and relationship between serum creatinine and estimated GFR were assessed. Clinical significance of the interventions was not assessed. The mean age of patients was 82,4 years. The estimated GFR was available for 145 patients (94,8%). 86,9% (n=126) had declined renal function (GFR<80 ml/min). Of these, serum creatinine levels were within normal range or under in 73,8% of all patients with renal insufficiency. Physicians had documented 4,8% of renal insufficiency cases in clinical patient files. Pharmacists identified inappropriate drugs due to renal function in 34,9% (n=44) of the patients with renal insufficiency. In total, pharmacists made 71 intervention recommendations. Physicians approved 60,6% of the pharmacists' recommendations as made. At least one intervention recommendation was approved as made in nearly one fourth (23,0%) of the patients with renal insufficiency. The most common drug-related intervention was changing the drug (25,4 %). Cardiovascular drugs accounted for 33,8% of the intervention recommendations, nervous system drugs 19,7 %. According to this study renal insufficiency among aged nursing home residents is common but underdiagnosed. Approximately one third of patients with renal insufficiency are using inappropriate medicines or dosages. These drug-related problems can be indentified and resolved during the comprehensive medication review procedure.