The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has extended the use of the ‘FS’ endorsement on NHS prescriptions for certain drugs being used in the HEAL-COVID and STIMULATE-ICP clinical trials to allow them to be supplied free of charge. Originally the medication was supplied directly to the patients by the clinical trial team, but some participants will be required to take the medications for up to 12 months. The medications are being used outside of their normal licensed indications, but the MHRA has advised that GPs can prescribe them using an FP10 paper prescription form or via EPS.
The medicines included are:
- HEAL-COVID trial – Apixaban and Atorvastatin
- STIMULATE-ICP trial – Famotidine and Loratadine (in combination), Rivaroxaban and Colchicine
Prescriptions for these trial drugs should be written on a separate prescription to any other prescribed drugs that the patient is taking. Prescribers need to apply the ‘FS’ endorsement correctly:
- On EPS prescriptions, prescribers need to select the appropriate flag to the drug field. It cannot be added manually to any of the free text areas such as the dosage field or pharmacy information as this will not be recognised by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) during processing
- On paper FP10s, prescribers need to write ‘FS’ next to each item prescribed for patients in the clinical trials and counter-sign next to this addition
Advice for Pharmacy Teams
- Pharmacy teams or patients cannot add or endorse ‘FS’ to prescriptions
- All items endorsed ‘FS’ by the prescriber should be dispensed and provided free of charge to the patient, no declaration on the back of the prescription needs to completed
- On EPS prescriptions, teams should make sure that the correct exemption reason is chosen before submitting for payment using the message code ‘Y’ (0017)
- Paper prescriptions should be placed in the red separator section for exempt prescriptions when submitting them to the NHSBSA
These arrangements will stay in place until 31st March 2023.
The ‘FS’ endorsement can also be used by prescribers to indicate that a product has been prescribed for the treatment of sexually transmitted infections