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The New Medicines Scheme at the National Prescribing Centre (NPC) is a well-established programme for providing advance information to the NHS to support the managed introduction of key new medicines.

Products are selected for assessment and prioritisation within the New Medicines Scheme 18 to 24 months before they are likely to be marketed.

What publications are produced?

We regularly review our outputs and their delivery to ensure our work continues to meet the needs of key NHS managers, budget holders, and others in local health economies who require timely access to concise, evaluated information on new medicines. Our current portfolio consists of the publications below, which are all available for viewing and download from this website. An NHSnet connection is required to access these publications, and you can click here to register for e-mail alerts to be informed when new publications become available.

New ‘blog style’ On the Horizon Stop Press and Rapid Review

Blogs provide a quick and succinct commentary on a recent newsworthy health issue related to prescribing and / or medicines. It may be an important piece of evidence that may change clinical practice, or something that has been in the news headlines.

Towards the end of 2007/08 NPC started developing blogs relating to New Medicines and will
continue to do this for the foreseeable future. Click here to see all of the blogs we have written to date on new medicines.

On the Horizon - Future Medicines bulletins

These bulletins sensitise the NHS to significant new medicines in order to facilitate local advance planning and more effective, timely managed introduction. They are published online approximately six months pre-launch for medicines where no NICE guidance is planned near launch.

On the Horizon - Post Launch Update bulletins

These are only produced when significant additional information has emerged since the publication of the related On the Horizon - Future Medicine bulletins. Published online within six weeks of a key product being marketed where no NICE guidance is planned near launch, they include any additional clinical data that became available in the preceding six months, price, range of presentations, relevant marketing / promotional plans. These publications were previously called On the Horizon Rapid Reviews.

On the Horizon Newsletter

These generic, two-sided A4 newsletters provide brief news items containing advance, or updated information, on a range of products that may come to market within the following two years. These are published online and are also posted out in hard copy twice a year to a core audience of key local decision-makers.

On the Horizon - Future Medicine and On the Horizon - Post Launch Update bulletins are produced in conjunction with Wessex Drug and Medicines Information Centre.