At its most basic level, a formulary is a list of medicines. Traditionally, a
formulary contained a collection of formulas for the compounding and testing
of medication. Today, the main function of a prescription formulary is to
specify particular medications that are approved to be prescribed under a
particular insurance policy. The development of prescription formularies
is based on evaluations of efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness of drugs.
Depending on the individual formulary, it may also contain additional clinical
information, such as side effects, contraindications, and doses.
By the turn of the millennium, 156 countries had national or provincial
essential medicines lists and 135 countries had national treatment
guidelines and/or formulary manuals. Australia
In Australia, where there is a public health care system, medications are
subsidised under the PBS and medications that are available under the PBS and the
indications for which they can be obtained under said scheme can be found
in at least two places, the PBS webpage and the Australian Medicines Handbook.
United States In the US, where a system of private
healthcare is in place, a formulary is a list of prescription drugs available to
enrollees, and a tiered formulary provide financial incentives for
patients to select lower-cost drugs. For example, under a 3-tier formulary, the
first tier typically includes generic drugs with the lowest cost sharing, the
second includes preferred brand-name drugs with higher cost sharing, and the
third includes non-preferred brand-name drugs with the highest cost-sharing.
When used appropriately, formularies can help manage drug costs imposed on the
insurance policy. However, for drugs that are not on formulary, patients must
pay a larger percentage of the cost of the drug, sometimes 100%. Formularies
vary between drug plans and differ in the breadth of drugs covered and costs
of co-pay and premiums. Most formularies cover at least one drug in each drug
class, and encourage generic substitution.
United Kingdom In the UK, the National Health Service
provides publicly funded universal health care, financed by national health
insurance. Here, formularies exist to specify which drugs are available on the
NHS. The two main reference sources providing this information are the
British National Formulary and the Drug Tariff. There is a section in the Drug
Tariff, known unofficially as the "Blacklist", detailing medicines which
are not to be prescribed under the NHS and must be paid for privately by the
patient. In addition to this, local NHS hospital
trusts and Primary Care Clinical Commissioning Groups, produce their own
lists of medicines deemed preferable for prescribing within their locality or
organisation; such lists are usually a subset of the more comprehensive BNF.
These formularies are not absolutely binding, and physicians may prescribe a
non-formulary medicine if they consider it necessary and justifiable. Often,
these local formularies are shared between a Primary Care Organisation and
hospitals within that PCO's jurisdiction, in order to facilitate the
procedure of transferring a patient from primary care to secondary care, thus
causing fewer "interfacing" issues in the process.
As in the United States, the NHS actively encourages generic prescribing,
in order to save more of the budget allocated to them by the Department of
Health. National formulary of India [NFI]
The National Formulary of India would prove to be the authoritative guide to
prescribing, dispensing and administering medicines for all
healthcare professionals. It will be useful for framing national drug
policies in the country. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of
India vide its notifications F. No. X. 1103506-DFQC, dated 8 May 2008 assigned
this mandatory responsibility to the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission,
Ghaziabad to publish NFI on regular basis.
History of NationalFormulary of India: The IPC with its mission to be one of
the leading scientificinstitutions under the central government puts stress on
keeping transparency,accountability and punctuality and the publication of the
NFI. The National Formulary of India editions
are as follows: - 1--National Formulary of India 1960 -The
first edition of NFI 2--National Formulary of India 1966 -The
Second edition of NFI 3--National Formulary of India 1979 –The
Third edition of NFI 4--National Formulary of India 2011;
Fourth Edition 5--CD-ROM of National Formulary of India
Procurement of Indian Pharmacopoeia and National Formulary ofIndia:-
The Indian Pharmacopoeia can be procured from Office of the
Secretary-cum-Scientific Director, Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission at CIPL
Campus, Rajnagar, Sector-23, Ghaziabad – 201 002 through demand draft in favour
of “Secretary-cum-Scientific Director, Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission” payable
at Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. The same can be procured from our authorized
distributors in India through our distribution network.A national
formulary contains a list of medicines that are approved for prescription
throughout the country, indicating which products are interchangeable. It
includes key information on the composition, description, selection,
prescribing, dispensing and administration of medicines. Those drugs
considered less suitable for prescribing are clearly identified.
Examples of national formularies are: Australian Pharmaceutical Formulary
British National Formulary British National Formulary for Children
Sri Lankan Formulary United States National Formulary, since
bought out and merged with the United States Pharmacopeia
FASS is the Swedish national formulary, the abbreviation standing for
Farmaceutiska Specialiteter i Sverige. Usage of the database is free of charge
and it has no promotional texts or advertising. Fass has been developed by
the Swedish Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry in close
cooperation with Sweden’s pharmaceutical industry, with additional assistance
from the Medical Products Agency, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Board and the
National Corporation of Pharmacies. Information on interactions is derived
from a joint development between the Departmentof Pharmaceutical Biosciences
at Uppsala University and the Swedish Association of the Pharmaceutical
Industry. See also
Pharmacopoeia Chilean pharmaceutical policy
Medicare Part D Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement,
and Modernization Act Prescription drug prices in the United
States Seneka Bibile
Specification Sri Lanka National Pharmaceuticals
Policy State Pharmaceuticals Corporation of Sri
Lanka National Drug Code System
References External links
A National Formulary for Canada, Department of Economics, University of
Calgary, 2005