Helping patients optimise the use of their medication safely and effectively is a fundamental responsibility of community pharmacists.
This month’s Medication Optimisation Update highlights key regulatory matters, professional guidance, IPU practice support and useful resources, all aimed at supporting medicines optimisation in practice.
The HPRA have advised that a new contraindication has been added to Phenergan 25mg film-coated tablets and to Phenergan 5mg/5ml Oral Solution as follows: “Phenergan should not be administered in patients with known, documented long QT syndrome, whether acquired or congenital.”
Phenergan Oral Solution is available OTC and is indicated for children from six years of age for the treatment of allergic conditions and reactions. It is important to ensure that all staff are aware of this update.
The full update is available by searching ‘Phenergan Product Information Update October 2025’ at hpra.ie.
The November 2025 NMIC bulletin discusses the risks associated with valproate use (in females and males), outlines the recent HPRA pharmacovigilance updates and highlights the risk-minimisation materials available to guide safe prescribing practice.
The bulletin is available at stjames.ie > Services > National Medicines Information Centre >
NMIC Bulletins > NMIC Bulletin 2025 Vol. 31 No.1 An update on valproate.
The IPU has a range of resources to support the safe supply of valproate-containing medicines, available at ipu.ie > Professional > Specialised drugs > Valporate containing medicines.
IPU Professional Academy recently ran a webinar on ‘Medicines Use In Pregnancy’, which outlines the risks epilepsy carries to both mother and baby and evaluates treatment options for the management of epilepsy before, during and after pregnancy. A playback version is available online.
The consequences of falling, particularly for older people, are a serious public health problem and a cause of ill-health and death. The IMSN has updated its briefing document on medication use and falls risk. It is available at imsn.ie/falls.
The HPRA has published its 2024 annual report on the sale of veterinary antimicrobials in Ireland. The report is available at hpra.ie by searching ‘Sales of veterinary antimicrobials in Ireland during 2024’.
The report outlines that approximately 76 tonnes of antibiotics for animals were sold in Ireland in 2024. Since 2018, there has been a slow decline in antibiotic sales as a result of the work done under Ireland’s National Action Plans on Antimicrobial Resistance (iNAP1 and iNAP2) and the legislative changes governing the authorisation, supply and use of antimicrobial medicines. However, despite this progress, there is still more work to do in this area.
While prescribers and veterinary practitioners are the gatekeepers for antibiotics, pharmacists, as healthcare professionals, play an important role in educating animal owners on health prevention and promoting the rational use of antimicrobials to mitigate the risk of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) development.
Guidance to support the responsible use of antimicrobials is available at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine website, at gov.ie > Departments > Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine > Animal Health > Antimicrobial Resistance.
In November 2025, the IPU in collaboration with the Asthma Society of Ireland released stickers to pharmacies with the IPU Review as part of the IPU CPC Health Promotion campaign. These stickers aim to discourage over-reliance on short-acting-beta-agonist inhalers in line with GINA guidelines supporting patients in reducing asthma exacerbations and maintaining asthma control.
Feedback was obtained from members via a WhatsApp poll. Out of the 89 responses who had received the stickers:
Figure 1: Actions taken from use of SABA stickers
These findings suggest an unmet need to address SABA overuse in community pharmacy and a lack of resources to do so. This project provides a starting point towards developing strategies and tools to support better asthma management and improve patient outcomes in the community pharmacy setting.
Tara Kelly MPSI, Medicines Information Pharmacist, IPU; Lara Marín MPSI, Professional Services Pharmacist, IPU; and Sinéad McCool MPSI, Professional Services/IPU Professional Academy, IPU
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