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.

John Wilkinson (pictured), Chief Executive of Eucomed, has received a special Career award from the International Vascular and Endovascular Course (IVEC) in Milan.

The award recognises the medtech industry’s contribution to the development of vascular and endovascular surgery.

IVEC Chairman Giorgio Biasi presented the award to John Wilkinson to “honour the excellence of a distinguished scientist and eminent colleague who has contributed enormously in promoting, divulging and spreading culture, development and achievements in the field of vascular and endovascular techniques.”

Following the award presentation, Wilkinson gave the Edmondo Malan Lecture on ‘Development and Achievements in Endovascular Procedures as a Result of a Continuous and Ingenious Co-operation between Physicians and Industry’.

He discussed the long history of collaborative working between clinicians and industry over 200 years, with ideas from doctors and surgeons being developed by companies, culminating in such revolutionary devices as the drug-eluting stent.

Wilkinson also emphasised the need for innovation to be built on a platform of ethical interaction and transparency, and for industry to support education and training in the delivery of new therapies.

Finally, he drew attention to the demographic and economic challenges facing Europe’s health systems, and called for a collaborative approach between all stakeholders to support innovative solutions to these urgent problems.

Eucomed is the leading European medical technology industry association. It represents 4,500 designers, manufacturers and suppliers of medical technologies.

As many as 238,000 pharmaceutical jobs may be lost in a decade in the US if President Obama’s proposed American Jobs Act is introduced, a new report warns.

The Act proposes that manufacturers of prescription drugs would pay rebates to the federal government for medicines used in both the Medicare and Medicaid health schemes and Medicare’s prescription drug benefit, known as Part D.

The report says that mandatory Part D rebates would see jobs cut, increase the cost of medication for the elderly and slow R&D with pharma absorbing the new charges.

This would result, it adds, in reduced payroll employment, reduced profits and possibly higher prices for other buyers.

President Obama introduced the bill in September, but faced stiff opposition from Republicans in the Senate who rejected the measure in the chamber vote.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) estimates that if the Act were introduced, the rebates would result in $135 billion paid to the federal government over the next ten years.

The report, published by the American Action Forum, a free-market policy think tank, says that “at a minimum, these additional rebates would constitute a direct, dollar-for-dollar reduction in revenue to the pharmaceutical industry”.

It also forecasts that hundreds of thousands of job losses would come from direct employment within the pharmaceutical industry and indirectly from suppliers.

After the rejection by the Senate, President Obama is now touring the US with the aim to increase support for the Act, which according to some economists, could actually create up two million jobs and see the economic growth by two percentage points.

A quarter of the NHS drugs spending of £4.1 billion last year went on just ten medicines, according to a new report.

IMS Health found that total prescribing costs in England, including primary care and community prescriptions, reached a record £12.86 billion in 2010, an increase of 4.8% from the previous year.

This total in English hospitals has increased by 7.7%.

The report, commissioned by the NHS, says that this growth is likely to be related to the introduction of new, more expensive treatments.

The top 10 drugs (Figure 1) were mainly biologics used to treat either autoimmune diseases or cancers.

The most expensive were two arthritis drugs, Abbott’s Humira (adalimumab), with an increase of 19% to £180.5 million, and Pfizer and Amgen’s Enbrel (etanercept), costing £179.6 million.

Novartis’ Lucentis (ranibizumab) treatment for eye disease cost £128.9 million, overtaking Roche’s breast cancer medicine Herceptin.

The report noted the difficulty in biologics, as they are unlikely to be copied and manufactured into generics, consequently costing for the NHS more for branded medication. Manufacturers are likely to make more innovative forms of existing drugs, which would also push prices up.

However, the primary care drugs bill, which takes up 66% of the £12.9 billion spending of medicines in the English NHS, is expected to decrease by £1 billion over the next four years due to a series of patent expiry dates.

European medtech industry association Eucomed will launch a conference pre-vetting system in early 2012 to assess all third-party educational conferences and congresses sponsored by its members.

The new system is the first of its kind in the healthcare industry, because its assessments will be binding.

The independent Eucomed Compliance Panel will assess educational events for compliance with the association’s Code of Ethical Business Practice in relation to such factors as scientific content, location and venue.

Each outcome will be made publicly available via a dedicated website, and relevant stakeholders will be notified.

The Eucomed Code allows member companies to sponsor third-party educational events such as medical congresses, seminars and training courses, subject to restrictions. Until now, members had to establish their compliance independently. The new system will apply a uniform compliance determination process to all Eucomed members.

“The conference pre-vetting system is a unique initiative in the healthcare sector,” said John McLoughlin, Chairman of the Compliance Panel. “It will be supervised solely by our Panel, which is a completely independent body. Eucomed members are required to follow the assessments.

“If a conference receives a negative assessment, Eucomed members may not sponsor either the conference or individual healthcare professionals who wish to attend the conference.”

John Wilkinson, Eucomed’s Chief Executive, added that the new system “is not only necessary for our members in their day-to-day activities but is also key to increasing the consistency and transparency of industry behaviour.”

Eucomed intends to give key stakeholders an opportunity to comment on the assessment criteria.

The pre-vetting system will begin as a pilot and be reviewed 6–12 months after its launch. It will be the sole responsibility of the Compliance Panel.

Eucomed represents 22,500 designers, manufacturers and suppliers of medical technologies in Europe.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America’s (PhRMA) Executive Vice President and General Counsel Diane Bieri will step down from her roles in December.

She will initially take maternity leave before pursuing other opportunities away from the PhRMA, including working as a consultant for the association.

John J. Castellani, PhRMA President and CEO, says that Mrs Bieri has been an “able and thoughtful leader” and that her advice and counsel will be missed.

Mrs Bieri first joined the PhRMA in June 2004 and served as the Deputy General Counsel between 2006 and 2007 before her most recent roles.

“My time at PhRMA has been both challenging and rewarding,” she said.

“I look forward to continuing to work with PhRMA and its members in a different capacity.”