SCOTTISH HOSPITAL NEWS


LEUKAEMIA RESEARCH CENTRE TO RECEIVE €3M EU GRANT University of Glasgow cancer


research centre is to receive a €3m EU grant to begin clinical trials on Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML) and other blood cancers.


The Paul O’Gorman Leukaemia Research Centre is to receive a European Research Council grant, to study ‘Game-changing Precision Medicine for Curing All Myeloproliferative Neoplasms (MPN)’.


Led by Professor Tessa Holyoake, the grant will enable the team to study drug-resistant leukaemia cells and use precision medicine to better target them. They hope that their work will reveal more accurate ways to target cancerous stem cells, and potentially lead to drugs that could cure some CML patients.


Current therapy for CML is with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) which effectively hold back the disease, but do not cure it. If the therapy is stopped, the leukaemia relapses in the majority of patients, requiring CML patients to remain on


treatment for their lifetime. These drugs, as well as being expensive to administer, can cause a number of side effects including diabetes and vascular problems


‘Despite decades of research,’ said Professor Holyoake, Professor of Experimental Haematology, ‘developing ways to overcome drug resistance in cancer is the most challenging bottleneck for curative therapies. This is because, in some forms of cancer, the cancer stem cells from which the diseases arise are constantly evolving in order to survive.


‘While significant advances in the management of these diseases have been made using life-long and expensive TKIs, patients are rarely cured of their disease. My goal is to change the way we study the leukaemia stem cells that persist in some patients as a means of delivering more effective precision medicine that is a ‘game-changer’ leading to therapy-free remission and cure.’


NEW TOOL IN COMBATTING DRUG


ADDICTION


Drug-related deaths in Scotland are at a record high, with nearly 12,000 people assessed for specialist drug treatment in Scotland in 2015/16. Statistics also show that more than 700 people died as a result of drug addiction in 2015: an increase of fifteen per cent compared to 2014.


Despite sterling work being done in this area, lengthy, unsupervised self-administration procedures are often regarded as humiliating and such stigma presents a barrier to sublingual buprenorphine uptake.


Now, the Scottish Medicines Consortium has approved a new wafer-thin oral treatment for drug addiction therapy will, according to both GPs and pharmacists, improve success results for addicts.


Espranor is a novel, freeze-dried wafer formulation of buprenorphine which disintegrates rapidly when placed on the tongue.


VACCINES NEEDED FOR INFANT CHEST INFECTIONS


Vaccines to combat a virus that can lead to fatal lung infections are urgently needed to help prevent child deaths worldwide, research suggests. Experts report that more than 115,000 children under five are dying each year from complications associated with the infection, called Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).


The team led by the University of Edinburgh analysed data from 329 studies of RSV infections worldwide. Their estimates indicate there are more than 33 million cases of RSV infection in children under five each year worldwide.


The study, which was conducted by the RSV Global Epidemiology Network and was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was published recently in The Lancet.


The survey found that almost half of those who die in hospital are younger than six months old and that more than 99 per cent


30 - SCOTTISH PHARMACIST


of deaths occur in developing countries. Half of the RSV deaths in these countries occur outwith hospital.


Five countries - India, China, Nigeria, Pakistan and Indonesia - account for half of the estimated cases of RSV worldwide.


Researchers say more data is needed from Africa and South Asia, where the number of RSV infections may be even higher. The findings highlight the pressing need for affordable treatments and vaccines as a priority.


Around three million are admitted to hospital each year with the virus, which causes breathing difficulties and wheezing.


The study is part of an ongoing initiative to provide the most comprehensive assessment of the global burden of RSV infections to date.


Phase II data published in European Addiction Research assessed the safety of the new buprenorphine oral lyophilisate wafer versus standard sublingual buprenorphine tablets, (Subutex). Patients (n=36) were opioid-dependent, commencing buprenorphine maintenance and were treated in a specialised clinical


trials or addictions treatment facility.


Results showed that 96.3 per cent of Espranor administrations (71.8 per cent, p< 0.0001 for standard sublingual buprenorphine tablets) achieved partial disintegration on the tongue within fifteen seconds, meaning at this time point the wafer could no longer be removed from the mouth intact.


Dr Steve Conroy from the Lanarkshire Drug Treatment and Testing Order Team firmly believes that Espranor will not only prove to be very popular with GPs and pharmacists, but will also be highly effective for patients.


‘I think most healthcare professionals will be delighted to see just how easy it is to administer Espranor,’ he told SP. ‘The fact that the tablet disappears immediately makes it much more preferable to the older versions. This means that the time that pharmacists – who generally administer such treatment – will have to spend on doing so will be greatly cut down.


‘The fact that Espranor disappears almost immediately – even if administered with wet fingers - will also cut down on the issue of diversion – ie, when patients pretend to take their treatment but then sell it on. They won’t be able to do this with Espranor due to the fact that it dissolves immediately. Overall, I think that the launch of Espranor will go some way to helping us face the challenges of opioid drug addiction therapy.’


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