The Drug Stability Testing Programme exists to provide evidence on the stability of agents and devices used in infection management practice, particularly those used in Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy (OPAT) services

The programme will provide an expanding repository of open access data on drug and device stability compliant with UK NHS standards as provided by the Yellow Covered Document.  For the first time healthcare professionals will be able to reference open access stability data reports to aid decision making, inform practice and offer opportunities to improve patient safety and patient outcomes, especially within the OPAT arena.
The programme objectives are central to the charitable objective of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy which is “To support the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge in the field of antimicrobial chemotherapy”.

COMMISSIONING A STUDY
Organisations can commission a stability study for their agent / device through the Drug Stability Programme.  Commissioned studies will be undertaken by the programme’s chosen provider and will lead to open access publication of peer review data.
The benefits of commissioning a study are:

• Opportunity to get medicines/devices tested to Yellow Covered Document standards
• Full methodology and results will be accessible to all NHS organisations free-of-charge
• Opportunity to open markets currently limited due to the high standard of testing required by the NHS
• Data on each medicine that has been tested in two elastomeric devices plus syringe and infusion bags across a range of storage conditions
• Journal peer review publication and website availability
• Highly competitive pricing model

For further details please email: opat@bsac.org.uk