Glossary

This glossary provides clear, consistent definitions of key terms used across ABPI publications, policy positions, consultations, and digital content. It is intended to support shared understanding among members, policymakers, partners, media, and the public.

A

AAC

Accelerated Access Collaborative

ATW

Advanced Therapies Wales Programme

ATMPs

Advanced therapy medicinal products

Medicines based on genes, tissues or cells, which offer new opportunities for the treatment of disease and injury.

ADR

Adverse Drug Reaction

A response to a medicinal product which is noxious and unintended. Response in this context means that a causal relationship between a medicinal product and an adverse event is at least a reasonable possibility. Adverse reactions may arise from use of the product within or outside the terms of the marketing authorisation or from occupational exposure. Conditions of use outside the marketing authorisation include off-label use, overdose, misuse, abuse and medication errors.

Adverse event

An unfavourable and unintended experience associated with the use of a medical product in a patient, which may or may not be causally related to the medicine

AWDCC

All Wales Drugs Contracting Committee

AWMSG

All Wales Medicines Strategy Group

AWPAG

All Wales Prescribing Advisory Group

AWTTC

All Wales Therapeutics and Toxicology Centre (Secretariat to AWMSG)

AHP

Allied Health Professional

Alternative technologies

Non-animal models that can be used in research

AMR

Antimicrobial Resistance

AI

Artificial Intelligence

AMRC

Association of Medical Research Charities

AoMRC

Association of Medical Research Charities

ABPI

Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry

ASAR

AWMSG Secretariat Assessment Report

The All Wales Medicines Strategy Group

B

Biosimilar

A biological medicine which has been shown not to have any clinically meaningful differences from the originator medicine in terms of quality, safety and efficacy

BDA

British Dental Association

BMA

British Medical Association

BNF

British National Formulary

BIT

Budget Impact Test

C

CDF

Cancer Drugs Fund

A source of funding that enables patients to access promising cancer medicines while additional evidence is collected.

CNCI

Category Normalised Citation Impact

Citation rates vary between research fields and with time. Consequently, analyses must take both publication field and year into account. In addition, the type of publication will also influence the citation count. For this reason, only citation counts of papers (as defined below) are used in calculations of citation impact. The standard normalisation factor is the world average of citations per paper for the year and subject category in which the paper was published. This normalisation is referred to as ‘rebasing’ the citation count. A CNCI value of more than 1.0 indicates performance higher than the world average for the relevant publication field, year, and document type.

Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult

An independent innovation and technology organisation committed to the advancement of cell and gene therapies.

CMO

Chief Medical Officer

COPD

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Citation count

The citation count is the number of times that a citation has been recorded for a given publication since it was published. Not all citations are necessarily recorded since not all publications are indexed. The material indexed by Clarivate, however, is estimated to attract about 95% of global citations.

Citation impact

Citations per paper is an index of academic or research impact (as compared with economic or social impact). For a single paper, raw citation impact is the same as its citation count. For a set of papers, it is calculated by dividing the sum of citations by the total number of papers in any given dataset. Impact can be calculated for papers within a specific research field such as clinical neurology, or for a specific institution or group of institutions, or a specific country. Citation count declines in the most recent years of any time period as papers have had less time to accumulate citations.

Clinical cohort

Research programme and/or infrastruture which involved collection and storgae of samples and clinical data derived from individuals with a pre-determined condition

CEPP

Clinical Effectiveness Prescribing Programme

CRO-mCTA

Clinical Research Organisation Model Clinical Trial Agreement

Clinical trial

Any interventional investigation in human participants intended to discover or verify the clinical, pharmacological and/or other effects of a medicine

Clinical trial sponsor

The organisation that has overall responsibility for running the clinical trial. This can be different from the organisation that funds the research.

Code of Practice

An ABPI document which sets out the requirements the industry must comply with and supports companies’ commitment to self-regulation

Collaborative working

Collaborative working is generally between one or more pharmaceutical companies, healthcare organisations and possibly other organisations. It must have, and be able to demonstrate, the pooling of skills, experience and / or resources from all parties involved

CAA

Commercial Access Agreement

Commercial collaborative studies

Commercial collaborative studies are typically funded, either wholly or in part, by the life sciences industry and sponsored by a combination of industry and non-commercial organisations.

CHC

Community Health Council

CPCF

Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework

CPW

Community Pharmacy Wales

Company-Sponsored Digital Activity

A digital activity is considered to be company-sponsored if it is owned, paid for and/or controlled by the company. Control means that the company has authority over the final content. A donation (financial or otherwise) to an organisation/site by a marketing authorisation holder does not constitute ownership, provided that the marketing authorisation holder does not control the final content of the site. A company may sponsor a ‘page’ on a website/platform that they do not own (e.g. a social media or micro-blogging site). If the company has control over the content of a sponsored page, it is considered company-sponsored.

CHD

Coronary Heart Disease

CIOMS

Council for International Organization of Medical Sciences

Chief Pharmaceutical Officer

CPO

D

Data (Use and Access) Bill

A proposed Government Bill with implications for health data sharing.

Data access policy

Changes to how NHS data is accessed including the move from a system of data sharing to a system of data access.

DARS

Data Access Request Service

NHS England’s gateway to accessing NHS health and social care data.

Data asset

A collection of data that has value for research, such as the UK Biobank.

Data linkage

The process of connecting different datasets for a more comprehensive analysis.

DHSC

Department of Health and Social Care

DHCW

Digital Health and Care Wales

Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW) is the national digital health and care organisation in Wales. It is a specialist body within the NHS Wales family tasked with leading, developing, and delivering digital and data services that support the delivery of health and care across Wales.

Disclosure

Industry showing payments and benefits in kind made by the pharmaceutical company