COVID-19: Beware of falsified medicines from unregistered websites

25.3.20: News from the European Medicines Agency

The EMA is urging the general public not to buy medicines from unauthorised websites and other vendors aiming to exploit fears and concerns during the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Vendors may claim that their products can treat or prevent COVID-19 or may appear to provide easy access to legitimate medicines that are otherwise not readily available. Such products are likely to be falsified medicines.

Falsified medicines are fake medicines that vendors pass off as real or authorised. They may contain the wrong or no active ingredient or the right ingredient in the wrong amount. They may also contain very harmful substances that should not be in medicines. Taking such products can lead to severe health problems or a worsening of your condition.

To protect yourself from fraudulent vendors, only buy medicines from a local pharmacy or retailer or from an online pharmacy that is registered with the national competent authorities. You can find the lists of registered online pharmacies in EU countries via EMA’s website or directly from websites of the national competent authorities.

All registered online pharmacies have a common logo which you can use to confirm that the site is registered. The logo consists of a rectangle with horizontal stripes and a white cross placed in the left half of the rectangle adjacent to the midline. Below this is the flag of the EU country where the online pharmacy is registered.

 Before buying a medicine from a site, check that the site has the logo and then click on it. You will then be taken to the website of your national authority and shown a list of all legally operating online pharmacies. Check that the online pharmacy you have visited is listed there before continuing with your purchase. If it is not listed, do not buy any medicine from that site.

Keeping safe when buying medicines Falsified medicines can cause serious harm When buying over the internet, only use registered online pharmacies Check that the online pharmacy you are using has the common logo Click on the logo and confirm that the online pharmacy is listed on the national authority website Do not buy medicines advertised as cures or preventive treatments for COVID-19. To treat COVID-related symptoms such as fever, discuss with your doctor or follow advice from authorities

The public is reminded that there are currently no treatments authorised for COVID-19. Medicines are available for treating symptoms such as fever in line with advice from your doctor or pharmacist.

In the event of a shortage of any medicines, you should follow the advice of your doctor, pharmacist or national competent authority. You can find some information about ongoing shortages on the websites of EMA and the national competent authorities.

This information has been published on our website with related content. Please check EMA’s dedicated webpage on COVID-19 for the latest updates.

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We would be grateful if you could disseminate this email to anyone else who might be interested in this information.

The above release was disseminated by the EMA's Public and Stakeholders Engagement Department

European Medicines Agency

Amsterdam | The Netherlands

Coffee and herbal ‘cigarettes’ once popular treatments for asthma: talks from 90th Anniversary for the Postgraduate Medical Journal

Condition used to be regarded as psychosomatic and brought on by stress

Strong black coffee and herbal ‘cigarettes’ were once popular treatments for asthma, which used to be thought of as a psychosomatic condition, brought on by stress, reveals a review of the evolution of common respiratory diseases over the past century.

The review, presented by Peter Barnes, Professor of Thoracic Medicine and Head of Respiratory Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, is one of a series of historical perspectives on key aspects of health and medicine, and their relevance to future practice, delivered by distinguished clinicians at a symposium in London today for the Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine (FPM).*

The lectures mark the 90th anniversary of Postgraduate Medical Journal, which began publishing in 1925, the year television pictures were first transmitted by Logie Baird and enclosed double decker buses were introduced to London’s streets.

In ancient times, asthma used to be treated with various herbal extracts, derived from horsetail, thorn-apple, and deadly nightshade (belladonna), and available as a tincture or in “asthma cigarettes.”

By the 1850s the use of strong black coffee was recommended to treat symptoms, and by the early 20th century adrenal gland extract, from which adrenaline is derived, emerged as an effective airway opener (bronchodilator) followed by the discovery in the 1920s that theophylline, which occurs naturally in tea, was similarly effective.

The adrenal gland was a source of another treatment for asthma—steroids, the precursor to the mainstay of treatment today. Glucorticosteroids were first extracted in the 1940s, when adrenaline also became available as an inhaled treatment for the first time.

During this period in history, asthma was thought of as a largely psychosomatic condition, brought on by stress. It wasn’t until the 1980s, when chronic inflammation was recognised as a key factor in the airway restriction that characterises the condition.

In 1925 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes emphysema and bronchitis, were treated with the same bronchodilators used for asthma. Now long acting bronchodilators and their combination are the treatments of choice, although they don’t work as well in COPD as they do in asthma.

But oxygen was considered to be dangerous and only became available in the 1980s. New treatments for COPD that dampen down the underlying inflammation are urgently needed but have proved difficult to develop.

In another presentation, looking towards the future, Professor Karol Sikora, Medical Director of CancerPartnersUK, points out that cancer could well become a long term condition in 20 years’ time. But this promise critically depends on sustained investment in innovative diagnostics and therapies, such as robotics, genomics, biosensors, and personalised medicine.

He suggests that as the population continues to age, and the prevalence of cancer rises, the interaction of four factors will determine the future success of curbing deaths from the disease: new technology; society's willingness to pay; evolving healthcare delivery systems; and the financial mechanisms that underpin them.

Other speakers include Professor Dame Carol Black, principal of Newnham College Cambridge and past president of the Royal College of Physicians, who will talk about the opportunities to improve public health by focusing on workplace health; Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed, David Weatherall Chair in Medicine at the University of Liverpool who will outline progress in the use of personalised medicine; and Dr Paul Nunn, former Coordinator, WHO Tuberculosis Programme, who will cover  the epidemiology and treatment of TB.

Details of all the other speakers and the topics they will be covering are available here: http://fpostgradmed.blogspot.co.uk

Commenting on the relevance and significance of the symposium, FPM President, Professor Donald Singer said: “Today’s symposium showcases many of the tremendous advances in medicine over the past 9 decades. Yet many of the medical challenges present in the 1920s still need further research and more global investment in health systems in developed and less developed regions. “

He added “The Postgraduate Medical Journal continues to play an important role in publishing new medical research and in educating young doctors and their teachers around the world.”

Notes for editors:

*90th Anniversary of the Postgraduate Medical Journal: Medicine from 1925 to 2015 One Day Symposium - 1st October 2015, Medical Society of London

Postgraduate Medical Journal is one of more than 50 specialist journals published by BMJ, which publishes the title on behalf of the Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine.

http://pmj.bmj.com

The Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine, founded in 1918, pioneered educational programmes in all branches of postgraduate medicine. The FPM publishes 2 international journals: the Postgraduate Medical Journal since 1925 and Health Policy and Technology since 2012.

Further information (including contact details for the speakers)

Emma Dickinson, Media Relations Manager, BMJ, BMA House, London, UK

Tel: + 44 (0) 207 383 6529

Email: edickinson@bmj.com

Advances in medicine over past 9 decades showcased at PMJ at 90 Symposium

The Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine is organising a Symposium in London on 1st October 2015 to mark the 90th Anniversary of its first official journal, the Postgraduate Medical Journal. The meeting will be held at the Medical Society of London.

PMJ at 90 Programme

Speakers and discussants will include FPM Fellows Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed who will discuss Progress in Personalised Medicine and Professor Peter Barnes FRS, who will speak on Advances in Respiratory Medicine, Professor Dame Carol Black, Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge and Past-President of the Royal College of Physicians who will discuss opportunities to improve public health through a focus on health in the workplace, and pioneers neuroscience Lord Walton of Detchant and of allergy Dr William Frankland, who introduced the pollen count to help people with asthma and other allergies.

Sir Munir Pirmohamed was awarded a Personal Chair in Clinical Pharmacology at The University of Liverpool in 2001, and in 2007, was appointed to the NHS Chair of Pharmacogenetics.  He was appointed the Head of the Department of Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Liverpool in 2010.  

Peter Barnes has been Professor of Thoracic Medicine since 1987 and is Head of Respiratory Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute and Honorary Consultant Physician at Royal Brompton Hospital, London. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2007, the first respiratory researcher to be elected FRS for over 150 years.  

Other speakers will include Peter Ashman, Publishing Director at BMJ, who will discuss the future for publishing medical journals, FPM Fellow cardiac surgeon Wade Dimitri (Coventry) who will discuss early development of heart surgery, vascular surgeon Professor Alison Halliday (Oxford) on carotid surgery to prevent stroke,  Professor Melanie Davies (Leicester) on progress in managing diabetes, FPM Fellow Andrew Marsh, who will discuss new approaches drug discovery, Dr Paul Nunn (London), former Director of the WHO Tuberculosis Programme, on advances in managing tuberculosis, Professor Dudley Pennell (London) on advances in imaging the heart, FPM Fellow Professor Munir Pirmohamed (Liverpool) who will discuss Progress in Personalised Medicine, Dr June Raine (MHRA, London) on vigilance and risk management of medicines, Emeritus Professor Terence Ryan (Oxford) on Sir William Osler,  Professor Karol Sikora (London) on cancer - a disease of our time, FPM President Professor Donald Singer on preventing heart disease, and Dr David Wilkinson, President of the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (London) on development of anaesthesia over the past 90 years.
 
The Postgraduate Medical Journal publishes topical reviews, commentaries and original papers on themes across the medical spectrum. It provides continuing professional development for all doctors, from those in training, to their teachers, and active clinicians, by publishing papers on a wide range of topics relevant to clinical practice.

Papers published in PMJ describe current practice and new developments in all branches of medicine; describe relevance and impact of translational research on clinical practice; provide background relevant to examinations; and papers on medical education and medical education research.  

The FPM is a British non-profit organisation founded in the autumn of 1919 as a merger of the Fellowship of Medicine and the Postgraduate Medical Association, with Sir William Osler as its first president. Its initial aims were the development of educational programmes in all branches of postgraduate medicine. 

The FPM now organises clinical and research meetings and publishes two journals. The FPM has since 1925 published the international journal, the Postgraduate Medical Journal. In 2012 the Fellowship launched a new international journal, Health Policy and Technology, published on the Fellowship's behalf by Elsevier.

FPM Symposium on Immunopsychiatry - 2nd November 2015 in London

A symposium is being organised by Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine to reflect the emergence of an exciting new area of research into the aetiology of psychiatric disorders, new advances with potentially large clinical implications. 

There has been a recent rapid increase in the understanding of the potential role of immune dysfunction in CNS disorders –  via both ‘acquired’ (antigen-specific) and ‘innate’ (relatively non-specific) immune processes – affecting ‘higher’ functions resulting in cognitive and behavioural symptoms. 

Download Programme

Register for the Symposium

These developments complement the already well-established role of the immune system in neurological disease, as  reflected in the investigation, diagnosis and treatment of many syndromes to the point of immune dysfunction (mostly via autoimmunity) being a differential diagnosis for almost any neurological disorder.

There is now increasing evidence that the immune system is implicated in many disorders at the interface of neurology and psychiatry (E.g. encephalitis, Tourette’s and dementias such as Alzheimer’s disease) and there is even evidence that ‘core’ psychiatric disorders such as OCD, schizophrenia and even depression might have a significant immune contribution to the disorder. 

This has major potential ramifications for the management of these disorders with potential for a wide range of new diagnostic tests and new both disease-modifying  (immunomodulation) and even preventative treatments.

This evidence, and future directions, will be reviewed at a level accessible to the generalist to bring them up to date with this fast moving field. The speakers include a genuinely world-class list of authorities on these subjects.

This seminar is aimed at psychiatrists, and clinicians in other related areas (especially neurology & immunology), interested in this emerging area. Neuropsychiatrists, Early Intervention Psychosis Psychiatrists & Old Age Psychiatrists should be particularly interested in these developments. It will also be of appeal to neuroimmunologists and related scientists.

Register for 90th Anniversary Symposium for the Postgraduate Medical Journal

The FPM is organizing a symposium to mark the 90th Anniversary of the PMJ.

Venue: Medical Society of London  Date:  Thursday 1st October, 2015

Speakers:  Peter Ashman, Publishing Director at BMJ, Professor Peter Barnes FRS, London, Professor Dame Carol Black, Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge, FPM Fellow Cardiac Surgeon Wade Dimitri, Professor Alison Halliday, Oxford, Professor Melanie Davies, Leicester, FPM Fellow Professor Andrew Marsh, Dr Paul Nunn, London, former Director of the WHO Tuberculosis Programme, Professor Dudley Pennell, Imperial College, London, FPM Fellow Professor Munir Pirmohamed, Liverpool, Dr June Raine, MHRA, London, Professor Terence Ryan, Oxford, Professor Karol Sikora, London, FPM President Professor Donald Singer, Dr David Wilkinson, President, World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists, London.

Download Programme

Early Registration (to 1st Sep) including lunch, coffee and tea
£25 for trainees in clinical or academic health-related disciplines (£40 after 1st Sep)
£50 for senior delegates in clinical or academic health-related disciplines (£70 after 1st Sep)
£100 for other delegates (£120 after 1st Sep)

Your registration is not confirmed until you have completed the Registration form below
and paid for your registration on our EventBrite button.

Scroll down inside the box and click submit at the foot of the form to register for the meeting.



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Symposium to mark 90th Anniversary for the Postgraduate Medical Journal

The Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine is organising a Symposium in London on 1st October 2015 to mark the 90th Anniversary of its first official journal, the Postgraduate Medical Journal. The meeting will be held at the Medical Society of London.

Places are limited for the day. Register online for the Symposium
 

Early Registration (to 1st Sep) including lunch, coffee and tea
£25 for trainees in clinical or academic health-related disciplines (£40 after 1st Sep)
£50 for senior delegates in clinical or academic health-related disciplines (£70 after 1st Sep)
£100 for other delegates (£120 after 1st Sep)
Speakers on the day will comment on what medicine was like in the 1920s, current progress in their field, and what is in prospect over the next 90 years.

Speakers will include FPM Fellows Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed who will discuss Progress in Personalised Medicine and Professor Peter Barnes FRS, who will speak on Advances in Respiratory Medicine.

Sir Munir Pirmohamed was awarded a Personal Chair in Clinical Pharmacology at The University of Liverpool in 2001, and in 2007, was appointed to the NHS Chair of Pharmacogenetics.  He was appointed the Head of the Department of Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Liverpool in 2010.  

Peter Barnes has been Professor of Thoracic Medicine since 1987 and is Head of Respiratory Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute and Honorary Consultant Physician at Royal Brompton Hospital, London. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2007, the first respiratory researcher to be elected FRS for over 150 years.  

Other speakers will include Peter Ashman, Publishing Director at BMJ, who will discuss the future for publishing medical journals, Professor Dame Carol Black, Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge and Past-President of the Royal College of Physicians who will discuss opportunities to improve public health through a focus on health in the workplace, FPM Fellow cardiac surgeon Wade Dimitri (Coventry) who will discuss early development of heart surgery, vascular surgeon Professor Alison Halliday (Oxford) on carotid surgery to prevent stroke,  Professor Melanie Davies (Leicester) on progress in managing diabetes, FPM Fellow Andrew Marsh, who will discuss new approaches drug discovery, Dr Paul Nunn (London), former Director of the WHO Tuberculosis Programme, on advances in managing tuberculosis, Professor Dudley Pennell (London) on advances in imaging the heart, FPM Fellow Professor Munir Pirmohamed (Liverpool) who will discuss Progress in Personalised Medicine, Dr June Raine (MHRA, London) on vigilance and risk management of medicines, Emeritus Professor Terence Ryan (Oxford) on Sir William Osler,  Professor Karol Sikora (London) on cancer - a disease of our time, FPM President Professor Donald Singer on preventing heart disease, and Dr David Wilkinson, President of the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (London) on development of anaesthesia over the past 90 years.
 
The Postgraduate Medical Journal publishes topical reviews, commentaries and original papers on themes across the medical spectrum. It provides continuing professional development for all doctors, from those in training, to their teachers, and active clinicians, by publishing papers on a wide range of topics relevant to clinical practice.

Papers published in PMJ describe current practice and new developments in all branches of medicine; describe relevance and impact of translational research on clinical practice; provide background relevant to examinations; and papers on medical education and medical education research.  

The FPM is a British non-profit organisation founded in the autumn of 1919 as a merger of the Fellowship of Medicine and the Postgraduate Medical Association, with Sir William Osler as its first president. Its initial aims were the development of educational programmes in all branches of postgraduate medicine. 

The FPM now organises clinical and research meetings and publishes two journals. The FPM has since 1925 published the international journal, the Postgraduate Medical Journal. In 2012 the Fellowship launched a new international journal, Health Policy and Technology, published on the Fellowship's behalf by Elsevier.
 

Professor Bernard Cheung appointed as new Editor-in-Chief for the Postgraduate Medical Journal

The Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine is pleased to announce the appointment from 1^st August 2015 of Professor Bernard Cheung as the next Editor-in-Chief of the Postgraduate Medical Journal, which is published on behalf of the FPM by the BMJ publishing house.

Professor Cheung said: "The PMJ has a long and illustrious history.  I would like to see it go from strength to strength. I have two main aims: to make the journal interesting and useful both to recent graduates and to established health professionals; and by publishing articles on the state-of-the-art care of common diseases, to make the PMJ also appeal to a broad range of readers, including the informed general public, and journalists who are looking for authoritative up-to-date information. 

The FPM expresses its grateful recognition and thanks to the outgoing Editor-in-Chief Dr Fiona Moss for all her efforts over the past 8 years to nurture and develop the PMJ.
 

Professor Cheung has wide experience in senior roles of editing national and international journals. His main research interest is in cardiovascular diseases and risk factors, such as hypertension and the metabolic syndrome.  He is a principal investigator of the Hong Kong Cardiovascular Risk Factor Prevalence Study.  He is ranked among the top 1% of researchers in his field.  

Professor Cheung is the Sun Chieh Yeh Heart Foundation Professor in Cardiovascular Therapeutics and heads the Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics in the Department of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong.  Professor Cheung is an Honorary Consultant Physician of Queen Mary Hospital and the Medical Director of the Phase 1 Clinical Trials Centre.  He is also the Director of the Institute of Cardiovascular Science and Medicine, and the President of the Hong Kong Pharmacology Society.  

Professor Cheung read Medicine at Magdalene College, Cambridge.  He was a British Heart Foundation Junior Research Fellow at Cambridge before taking up lectureships at the University of Sheffield and the University of Hong Kong.  In 2007-2009, he held the chair in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the University of Birmingham, England.

The Postgraduate Medical Journal, an international journal now in its 90^th year of

publication, provides topical reviews, commentaries and original papers on themes across the medical spectrum. It provides continuing professional development for all doctors, from those in training, to their teachers, and active clinicians, by publishing papers on a wide range of topics relevant to clinical practice.

The Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine is organising a Symposium in London on 1st October 2015 to mark the 90th Anniversary of the Postgraduate Medical Journal. Speakers on the day will comment on what medicine was like in the 1920s, current progress in their field, and what is in prospect over the next 90 years.

The Postgraduate Medical Journal was launched in 1925 in the era of the discovery of insulin and penicillin, pioneering examples of development and introduction of life-saving and life-changing medicines during the latter three-quarters of the 20th Century.

The FPM organises clinical and research meetings and publishes two journals. The FPM has since 1925 published the international journal, the Postgraduate Medical Journal. In 2012 the Fellowship launched a new international journal, Health Policy and Technology, published on the Fellowship's behalf by Elsevier.

The FPM is a British non-profit organisation founded in the autumn of 1919 as a merger of the Fellowship of Medicine and the Postgraduate Medical Association, with Sir William Osler as its first president. Its initial aims were the development of educational programmes in all branches of postgraduate medicine.