A Message to our Pharmacies and Pharmacists
18th June 2020
Dear Colleagues
Nigeria
This week’s briefing brings you highlights from COVID19 situation report and research breakthrough with the corticosteroid Dexamethasone, information on Partner Balance Tracking, next week’s schedule of online events to watch out for.
COVID19 Situation Report A total of 745 new confirmed cases and 6 deaths were recorded on the 18th of June 2020 from 21 states with FCT (60), Lagos (280), and Rivers (25). More details here: https://covid19.ncdc.gov.ng/
As easing of lockdowns continue, the reopening of places including worship centres does not imply an eradication of the coronavirus disease and we continue to urge community engagement in enhancing COVID-19 response to discourage high-risk behaviour.
Dexamethasone
Positive news this week from research on treatments indicating low-dose dexamethasone can save lives . The NIHR funded and supported study RECOVERY (Randomised Evaluation of COVid-19 thERapY) announced significant improvement in survival rates in coronavirus patients re. However, there was no benefit among patients who did not require respiratory intervention More information at:
https://www.nihr.ac.uk/news/first-drug-to-reduce-mortality-in-hospitalised-patients-with-respiratory-complications-of-covid-19-found/25061, and www.recoverytrial.net/
In Shelf Life related news
Partner Balance Tracking Change to the new subscriptions process Tracking your stock along with Shelf Life deliveries
As announced in previous editions, we have introduced a change to our process for handling new subscriptions. Starting today, when you subscribe to a new product, we will no longer automatically credit you for any existing stock you may have. Instead, we will count and keep track of your stock alongside Shelf Life-owned stock, until all of your old stock has been sold.
This will help us get better insights about your sales patterns so that we can more accurately plan your weekly deliveries.
Where you’ll see these changes:
Invoices – although you will see your stock counted alongside ours, we will only invoice you for sales of Shelf Life-owned stock. Our system will make sure that your old stock has been completely sold before we start invoicing you for Shelf Life stock.
Stock Counting - Fulfillment partners will count any existing stock you may have for the newly subscribed product in addition to Shelf Life products, if available
Collect and redistribute- whenever there is a need to collect some of the expired products, our system will make sure that we pull products only from Shelf Life stock.
New statements – we have a new comprehensive set of statements that give you a clear and detailed record of your Inventory, Sales, and Delivery. Our Fulfilment Partners will share these with you on each visit.
* Please note: When you are subscribed to a product with Shelf life, it is not permitted to buy those products elsewhere; this would be in violation of our agreement. Please contact us for a top up delivery when needed.
In other news:
FIP online events programme for next week in the “Responding to the Pandemic together” series
“Good pharmacy practice during the COVID-19 pandemic”, FIP vice president and community pharmacist Eeva Teräsalmi will explain the principles of good pharmacy practice and quality management and their importance in emergency preparedness and contingency plans during the current pandemic. 22 June 2020, 14:00 WAT Register here: https://fip.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8a53014ef869b0c219eac7e5f&id=6a5e35774c&e=3a06c204b2
“COVID-19 for hospital pharmacists and health systems: The medication use process” will present examples of how hospitals and health systems are altering their practice models to accommodate an influx of critically ill patients. 24 June 2020 14:00 WAT. Click here to join https://fip.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8a53014ef869b0c219eac7e5f&id=45e63c3c90&e=3a06c204b2
#AfricaTogether: Pharmacy against COVID19 panel’ of Pharmacy Leaders from across Africa to share best practices on forming a stronger front against COVID19 in the region
organised by the FIP, AstraZeneca & ICPASouthAfrica is scheduled for 25 June 2020: 17:00 WAT Click here to register https://fip.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8a53014ef869b0c219eac7e5f&id=984e5b2df3&e=3a06c204b2
Kenya
As the National Government through the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Kenya continues with efforts to intensify community mass testing, the Country in turn has in the past couple of weeks seen an unprecedented surge in new confirmed cases. Yesterday 18th June 2020 the Country hit a new high in both number of confirmed positive cases- two hundred and thirteen (213) in a day and number of samples tested in a day- six thousand and twenty-four (6024).
Please find below situation updates as at the last reporting cycle yesterday:
Total number of diagnostic tests done so far nationwide is one hundred and thirty thousand four hundred and ninety-eight (130,498) with four thousand two hundred and fifty-seven (4,257) of these confirmed to be positive as at the last reporting cycle.
One thousand four hundred and fifty nine (1459) others have recovered and one hundred and seventeen (117) have succumbed to the disease.
The case distribution per county from the positive cases yesterday are as follows; Nairobi (136), Mombasa (32), Kajiado (13), Kiambu (7), Busia (5), Nakuru (4), Machakos (4), Isiolo (3), Garissa (3), Taita Taveta (2), Kitui (1), Migori (1), Narok (1), Embu (1).
In Nairobi, the case distribution per ward from the positive cases yesterday are as follows; Dagoretti North (36), Westlands (25), Kamukunji (17), Kibra (13), Makadara (11), Starehe (8), Langata (9), Kasarani (6), Embakasi East (4), Embakasi North (3), Ruaraka (3) and Embakasi Central (1).
For more on this please visit http://www.health.go.ke/covid-19/ and keep up to date with the latest information and guidelines.
Use of Dexamethasone in Treatment of COVID-19 Patients
This week on Tuesday, reports on BBC and other international new networks indicated that clinical trials done at the Oxford University in the United Kingdom as part of a randomised evaluation of COVID-19 therapy indicated that Dexamethasone a corticosteroid, can be lifesaving for patients who are critically ill with COVID-19. For patients on ventilators, the treatment was shown to reduce mortality by about one third, and for patients requiring only oxygen, mortality was cut by about one fifth. The benefits have only been seen in patients who are critically ill and was not seen in patients with milder disease. Its mechanism of action is not targeted at reducing viral replication or viral load but rather reducing/inhibiting the severe inflammatory response seen in COVID-19 patients who are critically ill.
The World Health Organization (WHO) indicated this week that they will coordinate a meta-analysis to increase the overall understanding of this intervention and that clinical guidance will be updated to reflect how and when the drug should be used in COVID-19.
In Shelf Life service offer related news:
Tracking your Stock Balance. As indicated last week, in Nairobi this week we rolled out the partner (client pharmacy) balance tracking feature for pre-owned stock on FieldSupply. This feature automates and enables Shelf Life planners to track and monitor separate ledgers for partner (pharmacy-owned) and Shelf Life stock on consignment during the onboarding phase, or for newly subscribed products to enable quick understanding of consumption patterns that allows us to plan allocations more effectively for you. This will also eventually eliminate the need for stock credit notes and delays in mobilisation to the service caused by pharmacies trying to wind down pre owned stock before joining the service.
We look forward to getting feedback from you about this new introduction.
Decoupling of Counts from Deliveries: We started the pilot of this with some clients a couple of weeks back. In the coming weeks we will do a roll-out to all clients within our network. You will receive more information in the coming weeks. Please do not hesitate to give feedback to the Operations/Customer relations team member that will reach out to you directly or send an email to nairobi@shelfie.co or call, text to +254757075760.
In General News please see below updates this week:
Capacity Building: Please see below capacity building events happening in Kenya this week that maybe of interest to you:
The Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya (PSK) has organised a webinar on the title Hormonal Contraception. CPD points will be allocated. To register please click here:
The survey by the Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya (PSK) in collaboration with Ryculture Health and Social Innovation on the impact of COVID-19 in the retail Pharmacy sector and interventions to mitigate is still ongoing. To participate please complete the survey below:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdGLVzmze-WDl7FxixisqAY56Lf5p6VnBm6-i-NJxZUtOqsfw/viewform
Helping other retail pharmacies
If you know any other retail pharmacy we could be helping get through this difficult time, please refer them to Shelf Life and get one week service charge free when they join the family. Simply give them the number of the Sales Associate who introduced you to Shelf Life and we will take it from there once they call.
Stay Safe.
Your friends at Shelf Life
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