This month’s Pharmaceutical Field looks at some of the major issues affecting UK pharma at present; the evolution of its customer-base, an increased focus on compliance, the developing training needs of medical sales professionals and pharma companies’ ongoing challenge to attract and, crucially, retain talent.

The DH’s Innovation Health and Wealth document, published at the tail end of 2011, seeks to address the most significant challenge for UK healthcare – accelerating the adoption of innovation within the NHS. There is much that pharma can do to help enable innovative medicines reach patients more quickly.

Regulatory compliance remains a key priority for pharma as recent and impending global legislation puts pharma’s engagement with customers under increased scrutiny. In the process, the changing legislative landscape is having a significant impact on the training needs of medical sales professionals in the UK. This, in turn, is having a domino-effect on the pharmaceutical employment market, where a notable ‘skills gap’ is having a huge impact on recruitment and the quality of applicants for commercial roles.

Faced with an apparent dearth of quality candidates for sales positions, companies are needing to work hard to create the best working environment to retain their most talented employees. Pf’s annual attitudinal survey of the UK sales force reveals that, in some parts of the industry, there remains much to be done to ensure that the company culture advertised in the corporate brochure matches that experienced by employees in the workplace.

A new technology for point of care diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is about to be become available to GPs through leading UK healthcare distributor Williams Medical Supplies.

Williams has an exclusive agreement with Finnish company Mediracer to make this groundbreaking diagnostic tool available to UK primary care.

CTS, often linked to typing or driving, is a pressure on the median nerve in the wrist that can lead to numbness, tingling, weakness or muscle damage in the hand.

The use of Mediracer’s NCS test is claimed to reduce the CTS screening cost per patient from £270 in secondary care to £67 in primary care.

The Mediracer NCS technology identifies nerve entrapments in the hand using disposable surface electrodes. The results can be used to diagnose CTS and grade its severity.

Steve Dunn, CEO of Williams Medical Supplies, said: “We have a strong presence in the primary care market, but we want to strengthen our position to help suppliers and manufacturers – like Mediracer – to win more business.

“By offering exclusivity on key products to Williams, these companies will benefit from our unparalleled market penetration and business support.”

“CTS is a high-incidence condition and our tool provides consultant interpretation within minutes, allowing GPs to do work which is normally confined to hospitals and which saves the NHS money,” commented Pasi Karsikas, Mediracer’s Sales Director.

“We chose to partner with Williams for a number of reasons – they are the UK’s leading GP supplier, with excellent customer support and unrivalled market penetration – so we are looking forward to a bright future in this marketplace.”

Based in Gwent, Williams Medical Supplies is the UK’s leading provider of medical supplies and services, used by around 9,000 of the 10,500 GP surgeries.