The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) will publish quality standards for public health, starting with smoking, alcohol use and obesity.

The Institute will work with experts from Public Health England to develop standards for prevention and treatment at the public health level, now the responsibility of local government.

It is anticipated that the implementation of these standards will help to reduce the burden of diseases related to tobacco, alcohol and obesity on the NHS.

They will be based on existing NICE public health guidance, but will be focused to drive and measure improvements in public health outcomes.

Smoking, excessive alcohol intake and obesity are linked to both acute and chronic ill-health, and medicines feature in the treatment of all three conditions – with Lundbeck’s drug to prevent alcohol abuse, Selincro, being a major new example.

Speaking at NICE’s annual conference, Under-Secretary for Quality Lord Howe said: “Public health quality standards alongside and integrated with those for health and social care will provide a key tool to support Public Health England, local authorities and the wider public health community in achieving excellence.

“Our vision is over the next five years there will be a growing portfolio of NICE quality standards covering all the domains in all three outcomes frameworks.”

Professor Gillian Leng, Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Health and Social Care at NICE, commented that the new public health quality standards “will be a valuable tool for local authorities as they take on their new public health functions, and for Public Health England.

“By bridging the interface across health, social care and public health, NICE public health quality standards will help support integration across the three sectors.”

Regular marijuana use reduces the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to a US study based on the National Health and Nutrition Survey.

Data for 2005–2010 show that people who reported recent marijuana use had 16% lower fasting insulin and lower insulin resistance.

The finding will strengthen the case for the medical use of marijuana, already licensed in 19 US states for use under conditions that avoid the health risks of smoking and excessive intake of the drug.

A synthetic form of its active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is available in pill form and avoids the negative respiratory effects of smoking, as well as making doses easier to control.

The national survey covered 4,657 people. Participants answered questions about their drug use and gave fasting blood samples.

The link between marijuana use and markers of low type 2 diabetes risk (lower fasting insulin and insulin resistance) was stronger where the drug use was recent (within a month).

People with diagnosed type 2 diabetes were excluded from the data analysis, as their dietary patterns were likely to have been influenced by treatment.

Joseph S. Alpert, Editor-in-Chief of The American Journal of Medicine, commented: “We desperately need a great deal more basic and clinical research into the short- and long-term effects of marijuana in a variety of clinical settings such as cancer, diabetes, and frailty of the elderly.”

Pharmaceutical giant Merck Serono and leading industry service provider Quintiles have formed a five-year clinical development partnership.

The unique collaboration aims to optimise productivity in the design and execution of clinical drug trials, speeding the development of new treatment options in Merck Serono’s core therapy areas: neurology, oncology and immunology.

Merck Serono will shape and lead the partnership’s drug development programme; Quintiles will direct the planning and conducting of clinical trials and contribute to ongoing trial design.

Quintiles will be the sole primary provider of Merck Serono’s outsourced drug development services. It will also participate in strategic decisions regarding the development of the pharma company’s portfolio.

The partnership reflects the pivotal role of contract research organisations and other service providers in the global pharmaceutical industry.

“By combining the strengths of Merck Serono and Quintiles, we are creating a new model in clinical development that will unlock the knowledge and insights of both companies,” said Annalisa Jenkins, Executive VP and Head of Global Development and Medical at Merck Serono.

“This is an innovative and unique collaboration that will help to translate the highest-quality science into efficiency and agility throughout our clinical trials, while enhancing our competitive position in an increasingly challenging environment of clinical drug development.”

Tom Pike (pictured), CEO of Quintiles, commented: “We view this as a key step forward not only for our two companies, but for the way the industry approaches the development of new therapies for the patients we ultimately serve.”

Merck Serono is the biopharmaceutical division of Merck, based in Darmstadt, Germany. Quintiles is the largest global provider of drug development and commercial outsourcing services to the pharmaceutical industry.

The Government is keeping the implications of the planned US-EU trade deal for the NHS a secret from Parliament and the public, Lord Owen has said.

Healthcare is included in a deal that will make service provision contracts irreversible by future governments, the independent peer said.

Lord Owen proposed legislation to stop ministers making trade deals that affect NHS provision without parliamentary approval.

Five weeks before the next G8 Summit, Lord Owen said there was a “conspiracy of silence” about the dangers to the NHS of the EU-US trade deal – which he had already described as the real reason for the Government’s NHS reforms.

Unlike the Canadian EU trade negotiations, he said, the proposed deal does not exclude healthcare provision. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, David Cameron stated that “everything must be on the table” in the negotiations.

Investment protection would be extended to all the UK healthcare provision contracts that American private companies expect to have gained by 2015. That would make it impossible for future governments to revoke these contracts without incurring major financial penalties.

Lord Owen presented a short NHS Reinstatement Bill, part of which seeks to make it impossible for UK ministers to sign trade agreements affecting the NHS without the prior approval of the UK Parliament or the relevant devolved authority.

NHS emergency services are facing a major breakdown this winter due to staffing and funding shortages.

Reviews by the College of Emergency Medicine and the Foundation Trust Network have warned that A&E demand is continuing to outstrip capacity.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt responded that better “joined-up thinking” between health and social care was necessary to reduce the demand.

A&E attendance figures have increased by 50% in the last 10 years, due to a number of factors: the ageing population, lack of out-of-hours GP services and, more recently, problems with the new 111 helpline.

The College of Emergency Medicine surveyed more than half of UK’s A&E units and concluded that a shortage of both middle-grade and senior doctors was weakening the service.

In addition, it said, as many as 30% of patients attending A&E could be treated in non-emergency settings, given better access and information.

The Foundation Trust Network (FTN) noted that some hospitals are losing millions of pounds each year due to current rules designed to reduce A&E admissions.

Where A&E admissions rise above the 2008–9 level, the hospital is only paid 30% of the normal fee for each admission.

Fining hospitals for having too many A&E patients was no way to improve services, the FTN said.

Its Chief Executive Chris Hopson argued: “Unless we can change the funding structure, the A&E system is going to fall over. We simply cannot carry on.” This winter was likely to see the collapse of the A&E system, he warned.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt commented that the underlying problem was “a lack of joined-up thinking between the health and social care systems which we’re sorting out”.

Steve Turley, Managing Director of Lundbeck, has been re-elected Chair of the European Medicines Group (EMG), the UK voice of pharmaceutical companies based in continental Europe.

Robin Bhattacherjee, General Manager of Actelion, was re-elected vice-Chair of the EMG; and Mike Sumpter, CEO of Servier Laboratories, was elected Treasurer.

Issues highlighted at the EMG’s twelfth AGM included the impact of NHS reform on European-based companies and European perceptions of the UK as a pharmaceutical market and research base.

The EMG’s 15 member companies are Actelion, Almirall, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Ferring, Lundbeck, Menarini, Merck Serono, Norgine, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Roche, Sanofi, Servier and UCB.

Steve Turley (pictured) commented: “We have members ranging from the UK’s biggest pharmaceutical companies, through biotechnology specialists to emerging organisations. Yet we all share common challenges and can benefit from being able to view these through a European-focused lens.”

“How the implementation of the NHS reforms affects European-based companies is a key issue this year,” noted Robin Bhattacherjee.

“Upwards of 60% of the medicines our members have introduced in the last decade have not been subject to a NICE health technology appraisal, so... local decision making in the CCGs about the use of these remains a major focus for EMG.”

Mike Sumpter noted: “Globally the UK is viewed as a tough market where innovative new medicines aren’t adopted as readily as similar economies.

“We want to work closely with our NHS stakeholder partners to demonstrate that the UK and the NHS is worth investing in.”

Lundbeck is based in Denmark, Actelion in Switzerland and Servier in France; all three companies have major UK operations.

Delayed transfers of care from the NHS to social services are becoming more prevalent, according to Government figures highlighted by Age UK.

NHS and local government leaders have declared a ‘pledge’ to close the gap between the NHS and social care by 2018.

However, the ‘pioneer projects’ declared will take place against a background of ongoing cuts in the social care and NHS budgets.

The Department of Health, NHS England, the Local Government Association and the umbrella bodies for directors of social care have launched a joint programme to stop patients falling into the gap between NHS and social care.

From the end of this summer, a number of ‘pioneer projects’ will seek to address the problem – including ways to pool budgets, speed up discharge from hospital and streamline patient assessments.

Age UK has published Government figures showing that on average, patients in hospital are waiting 30 days for a care home place, while patients at home are waiting 27 days for a care package.

In both cases, these figures show a 13% increase relative to three years ago – a reflection of the deep cuts in social care budgets.

Social care commissioners have been warned of further cuts this year, while the ‘Nicholson challenge’ – an absolute cut of £5bn per year in the NHS budget – is now planned to continue indefinitely.

Michelle Mitchell of Age UK commented: “Waiting in hospital needlessly not only wastes NHS resources, but can also undermine an older person’s recovery and be profoundly upsetting for them and their families.”

US biopharma company Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc. (ITI) has appointed former NICE Chairman Professor Sir Michael Rawlins to its Board of Directors.

Rawlins’ experience in the field of drug assessment, from both clinical and economic perspectives, will be of value to ITI’s ambitious programme of drug development to treat psychiatric and neurological disorders.

As Chairman of NICE from its inception in 1999 to March 2013, Rawlins had a complex relationship with the pharmaceutical industry, which respected his expertise but sometimes challenged his priorities.

With a background in medical practice and clinical pharmacology, Rawlins recently became President of the Royal Society of Medicine, and has received numerous medical awards.

Sharon Mates, CEO of ICT, said: “We are excited to have Sir Michael Rawlins join our board. His expertise in the cost-effectiveness of new pharmaceuticals and other issues in health economics will be invaluable to Intra-Cellular Therapies.

“I look forward to working closely with Michael as we transition our clinical programs through late-stage development and commercial approval.”

Rawlins commented: “ITI has set itself on a course to develop outstanding new pharmaceuticals to treat CNS diseases, surely an ambitious task, but one in which I am pleased to join and help.”

Based in New York, ITI aims to develop drugs for the treatment of dementia and major psychiatric disorders. Its novel antipsychotic ITI-007 is currently undergoing phase II clinical trials as a treatment for schizophrenia.

An alliance of senior nurses has warned that unsafe staffing levels are becoming the norm in NHS hospitals.

According to the Safe Staffing Alliance (SSA), wards routinely have one registered nurse for every eight patients – an inadequate level to provide safe care.

A survey of 3,000 nurses by the Nursing Standard journal found that 40% said their last shift did not have a safe level of nursing coverage.

More than 75% of the nurses polled believed that another tragedy similar to that in Mid Staffordshire was likely in the NHS.

The Francis report identified poor nurse staffing levels as a major cause of the unnecessary deaths at Stafford Hospital.

The SSA, which includes representatives of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the Patients Association, said that a ratio of one nurse to every eight patients is now considered acceptable in NHS hospitals.

However, they argued, it was not a safe minimum because any increase in the number of patients per nurse would increase the risk of serious harm.

“More than eight patients per registered nurse is the level considered to be unsafe and putting patients at risk,” the SSA said. “For nurses to provide compassionate care which treats patients with dignity and respect, higher levels will be needed and these should be determined by every healthcare provider.”

Dr Peter Carter, RCN General Secretary, commented: “What happened at Mid Staffordshire was a tragedy, and for nurses to say they predict another scandal is very worrying indeed.

“The issues of unsafe staffing levels, unregulated healthcare assistants, and a financially driven culture must be addressed.”

However, Health Minister Dr Dan Poulter insisted that the new Chief Inspector of Hospitals would intervene if hospital wards were inadequately staffed.

Diabetes UK has launched a major research programme in partnership with Tesco to develop a vaccine against type 1 diabetes.

Tesco, which has made Diabetes UK its National Charity Partner for this year, hopes to raise £10m for diabetes research through sales and staff fundraising.

While a vaccine to fully prevent type 1 diabetes remains elusive, researchers predict that combining existing treatments will delay the onset and reduce the severity of the condition.

A genetic auto-immune disorder, type 1 diabetes affects 300,000 people in the UK, reducing their life expectancy by an average of 20 years.

Dr Alasdair Rankin, Diabetes UK’s Director of Research, said that a vaccine for Type 1 diabetes is a realistic prospect but will need to be built up to. “There is a huge sense of excitement in the research community that the work being done today is building towards a future where Type 1 diabetes can be stopped in its tracks,” he said.

“It is likely that the first vaccines we see will allow people to live longer before they develop Type 1 diabetes, rather than preventing it entirely. But we know that if people who do develop Type 1 diabetes are treated early with a vaccine then it could provide some benefits that make their condition easier to manage.

“I am really hopeful that with the boost of the funding that has been made possible by our partnership with Tesco, within the next 20 years we will have a vaccine that can stop Type 1 diabetes developing,” he concluded.

A summit meeting to discuss new research into diabetes vaccine development will be used to develop a call for specialist researchers to apply for funding, developing a research programme from next year onward.

The Tesco fundraising campaign will include product promotions that carry a donation to Diabetes UK, donation by customers of club card points, and a donation of 0.0125p for every ATM transaction made at Tesco stores until 28 February 2014.