County Durham & Tees Valley Formulary

Chapters

Legend

Green Drug - Can be initiated and prescribed in all care settings.
Green Alternative - Second line / alternative green drug
Green+ drug - Specialist initiation / recommendation.
Amber drug - Specialist drugs suitable for transfer under shared care protocols.
Red drug - "Specialist only" drugs (not for transfer).
Not Approved - Drugs that are not approved for prescribing.
Not Reviewed - Drugs that haven’t been reviewed yet and should not normally be prescribed
Unclassed Drug - approved but no traffic light status (mainly antibiotics)
Grey Drug

Drug Safety Update

5-fluorouracil (intravenous), capecitabine, tegafur: DPD testing recommended before initiation to identify patients at increased risk of severe and fatal toxicity

Patients with complete or partial dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) deficiency are at increased risk of severe and fatal toxicity during treatment with these medicines.

Published: 2020-10-22T13:16:03Z
Flucytosine (Ancotil): new contraindication in patients with DPD deficiency

Flucytosine is a prodrug of 5-fluorouracil used to treat systemic yeast and fungal infections and can cause life-threatening and severe toxicity in patients with complete and partial dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) def…

Published: 2020-10-22T13:15:55Z
Niraparib (Zejula▼): reports of severe hypertension and posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES), particularly in early treatment

Increase the frequency of blood pressure monitoring to at least weekly for the first 2 months, and then monitor monthly for the first year and periodically thereafter during treatment, following recent reports of onset of se…

Published: 2020-10-22T13:15:44Z
Dolutegravir (Tivicay▼, Triumeq▼, Juluca▼): updated advice on increased risk of neural tube defects

Updated safety recommendations have been issued as part of the European review evaluating cases of neural tube defects in babies born to mothers who became pregnant while taking the HIV medicine dolutegravir.

Published: 2020-10-22T13:15:24Z
Warfarin and other anticoagulants: monitoring of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic

Guidance has been published on monitoring of patients on warfarin and other anticoagulants during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Published: 2020-10-22T13:15:13Z
Every report counts: report suspected adverse drug reactions and take part in #MedSafetyWeek (2–8 November 2020)

Remain vigilant for suspected adverse drug reactions and report them to the Yellow Card scheme.

Published: 2020-10-22T13:15:01Z
Letters and drug alerts sent to healthcare professionals in September 2020

A summary of letters and drug alerts recently sent to healthcare professionals.

Published: 2020-10-22T13:14:36Z
Opioids: risk of dependence and addiction

New recommendations following a review of the risks of dependence and addiction associated with prolonged use of opioid medicines (opioids) for non-cancer pain.

Published: 2020-09-23T13:28:34Z
Transdermal fentanyl patches for non-cancer pain: do not use in opioid-naive patients

Following a review of the risks associated with use of opioid medicines for non-cancer pain, the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) has recommended that fentanyl transdermal patches are contraindicated in opioid-naive patie…

Published: 2020-09-23T13:28:19Z
Methotrexate once-weekly for autoimmune diseases: new measures to reduce risk of fatal overdose due to inadvertent daily instead of weekly dosing

In autoimmune conditions and some cancer therapies, methotrexate should be taken once a week; however, we continue to receive reports of inadvertent overdose due to more frequent dosing (including daily administration).

Published: 2020-09-23T13:28:01Z