UK General Practice Formularies

The percentage of general practices in the UK operating their own prescribing formularies is expected to rise to 43% over the next year from around 25% at present, according to a new report published by market research specialists Milpro.

Approximately two-thirds of the Family Health Services Authority pharmaceutical advisers questioned in the study said that the most important factors to be considered when advising general practitioners to include individual drug products in their formularies were efficacy and cost. Around 25% of the advisers told the study that they would urge GPs to include generic products only in their practice formularies, and to exclude brand-name drugs completely.