 | This article needs to be updated.(October 2019) |
| Industry | Pharmaceutical |
|---|---|
| Founded | London, England, UK (October 2008) |
| Headquarters | London , United Kingdom |
Area served | UK |
Key people |
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| Products | Pharmaceuticals |
| Website | link |
ITH Pharma is a British compounding pharmaceutical company, founded in 2008 by two pharmacists.
It began in 1997 when Hamling spotted a gap in the market for patients to get complex intravenous treatments on a same-day basis. Hamling raised £150,000 from family to start their first compounding company.
They received their license from the MHRA in August 1998 and pioneered a same-day intravenous medication service, through their first contract from the Royal Brompton Hospital, London for prefilled syringes of antibiotics for cystic fibrosis children. [ citation needed ]
After selling their first company, they used the proceeds to set up ITH Pharma in 2008.
In June 2014, a batch of intravenous feed supplied to hospitals by ITH Pharma in the UK for neonatal care was delivered in an allegedly contaminated state, with about 16 alleged cases of blood poisoning in infants. [1] [2]
On 31 October 2018 the BBC reported that ITH Pharma were charged with a number of offences following the deaths and illness of babies in some hospitals in England. They were charged with seven counts of supplying medicinal product not of the quality specified in the prescription. They were also charged with failing to take reasonable steps to ensure patients are not infected by contaminants, in breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act. The babies, many of whom were premature, were being fed through drips in neonatal intensive care units, between 2009 and 2014. ITH Pharma said it was disappointed by the decision to charge the company and would "vigorously defend" the case. [3]
In January 2022 ITH Pharma entered guilty pleas to three charges, admitting supplying contaminated feed and expressing "We wish to extend our deepest sympathies to the families of the patients affected." [4] ITH Pharma was ordered to pay £1.2m by a crown court in 2022 and accepted blame for providing infected TPN to 19 premature babies across nine hospitals in 2014. [5]
Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it links health sciences with pharmaceutical sciences and natural sciences. The professional practice is becoming more clinically oriented as most of the drugs are now manufactured by pharmaceutical industries. Based on the setting, pharmacy practice is either classified as community or institutional pharmacy. Providing direct patient care in the community of institutional pharmacies is considered clinical pharmacy.
Preterm birth, also known as premature birth, is the birth of a baby at fewer than 37 weeks gestational age, as opposed to full-term delivery at approximately 40 weeks. Extreme preterm is less than 28 weeks, very early preterm birth is between 28 and 32 weeks, early preterm birth occurs between 32 and 34 weeks, late preterm birth is between 34 and 36 weeks' gestation. These babies are also known as premature babies or colloquially preemies or premmies. Symptoms of preterm labor include uterine contractions which occur more often than every ten minutes and/or the leaking of fluid from the vagina before 37 weeks. Premature infants are at greater risk for cerebral palsy, delays in development, hearing problems and problems with their vision. The earlier a baby is born, the greater these risks will be.
A neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), also known as an intensive care nursery (ICN), is an intensive care unit (ICU) specializing in the care of ill or premature newborn infants. The NICU is divided into several areas, including a critical care area for babies who require close monitoring and intervention, an intermediate care area for infants who are stable but still require specialized care, and a step down unit where babies who are ready to leave the hospital can receive additional care before being discharged.
Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is an intestinal disease that affects premature or very low birth weight infants. Symptoms may include poor feeding, bloating, decreased activity, blood in the stool, vomiting of bile, multi-organ failure, and potentially death.
Diethylene glycol (DEG) is an organic compound with the formula (HOCH2CH2)2O. It is a colorless, practically odorless, and hygroscopic liquid with a sweetish taste. It is a four carbon dimer of ethylene glycol. It is miscible in water, alcohol, ether, acetone, and ethylene glycol. DEG is a widely used solvent. It can be a normal ingredient in various consumer products, and it can be a contaminant. DEG has also been misused to sweeten wine and beer, and to viscosify oral and topical pharmaceutical products. Its use has resulted in many epidemics of poisoning since the early 20th century.
Baxter International Inc. is an American multinational healthcare company with headquarters in Deerfield, Illinois.
Contaminated hemophilia blood products were a serious public health problem in the late 1970s up to 1985.
Gray baby syndrome is a rare but serious, even fatal, side effect that occurs in newborn infants following the accumulation of the antibiotic chloramphenicol.
Bliss is a UK-based charity for infants. Bliss supports the families of babies in neonatal care and works with health professionals to provide training and improve care for babies. It campaigns for improved hospital resources across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and is actively involved in neonatal research. Its chief executive is Caroline Lee-Davey.
From the 1970s to the early 1990s, tens of thousands of people were infected with hepatitis C and HIV as a result of receiving infected blood or infected clotting factor products in the United Kingdom. Many of the products were imported from the United States, and distributed to patients by the National Health Service. Most recipients had haemophilia or had received a blood transfusion following childbirth or surgery. It has been estimated that more than 30,000 patients received contaminated blood, resulting in the deaths of at least 3,000 people. In July 2017, Prime Minister Theresa May announced an independent public inquiry into the scandal, for which she was widely praised as successive governments going back to the 1980s had refused such an inquiry. May stated that "the victims and their families who have suffered so much pain and hardship deserve answers as to how this could possibly have happened." The final report was published in seven volumes on 20 May 2024, concluding that the scandal could have been largely avoided, patients were knowingly exposed to "unacceptable risks", and that doctors, the government and NHS tried to cover up what happened by "hiding the truth".
Santaris Pharma A/S was a biopharmaceutical company founded in 2003 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The company also had a branch in San Diego, California that opened in 2009. Created by a merger between Cureon and Pantheco, Santaris developed RNA-targeted medicines using a Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA) Drug Platform and Drug Development Engine.
Emcure Pharmaceuticals Limited is an Indian multinational pharmaceutical company, headquartered in Pune. Emcure's product portfolio includes tablets, capsules and injectables. The company produces gynaecology, cardiovascular, oncology and blood therapeutic drugs, HIV antivirals and other anti-infectives, and vitamins and minerals.
In 2011, deaths occurred at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. After suspicions were raised concerning the similarities of the deaths, a murder inquiry was launched. Nurse Victorino Chua was found to have poisoned several patients with insulin. He was convicted of murder in 2015 and sentenced to life imprisonment.
GW Pharmaceuticals Limited is a British pharmaceutics company known for its multiple sclerosis treatment product nabiximols which was the first natural cannabis plant derivative to gain market approval in any country. Another cannabis-based product, Epidiolex, was approved for treatment of epilepsy by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2018. It is a subsidiary of Jazz Pharmaceuticals.
Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients is a book by the British physician and academic Ben Goldacre about the pharmaceutical industry, its relationship with the medical profession, and the extent to which it controls academic research into its own products. It was published in the UK in September 2012 by the Fourth Estate imprint of HarperCollins, and in the United States in February 2013 by Faber and Faber.
A New England Compounding Center meningitis outbreak that began in September 2012 sickened 798 individuals and resulted in the deaths of more than 100 people. In September 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in collaboration with state and local health departments and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), began investigating a multistate outbreak of fungal meningitis and other infections among patients who had received contaminated steroid injections from the New England Compounding Center (NECC) in Framingham, Massachusetts. The NECC was classified as a compounding pharmacy. The traditional role of compounding pharmacies is to make drugs prescribed by doctors for specific patients with needs that can't be met by commercially available drugs.
Neonatal infections are infections of the neonate (newborn) acquired during prenatal development or within the first four weeks of life. Neonatal infections may be contracted by mother to child transmission, in the birth canal during childbirth, or after birth. Neonatal infections may present soon after delivery, or take several weeks to show symptoms. Some neonatal infections such as HIV, hepatitis B, and malaria do not become apparent until much later. Signs and symptoms of infection may include respiratory distress, temperature instability, irritability, poor feeding, failure to thrive, persistent crying and skin rashes.
Calea UK is a supplier of parenteral nutrition based in Runcorn, part of Fresenius Kabi.
Omnicell, Inc. is an American multinational healthcare technology company headquartered in Mountain View, CA. It manufactures automated systems for medication management in hospitals and other healthcare settings, and medication adherence packaging and patient engagement software used by retail pharmacies. Its products are sold under the brand names Omnicell and EnlivenHealth.