wer soll das bezahlen?
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MS patients denied vital drug due to the high cost 30 May 2007
A promising drug which slows the devastating auto-immune disease multiple sclerosis and greatly reduces the risk of relapse is being denied to hundreds of West Australians because the drug regulator says it costs too much.
Under a Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme ruling, people with MS will miss out on the drug, Tysabri, unless they can pay more than $30,000 a year when it becomes available in Australia in a few months.
A Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee review late last year conceded the drug was “the first additional effective treatment option in several years for this distressing condition” and “demonstrated a clinical benefit”.
But it concluded that its cost-effectiveness was not good enough and uncertain.
It estimated the drug would cost the Commonwealth at least $10 million in its first year, rising to $30-$40 million a year within five years.
But Multiple Sclerosis Society of WA chief executive Marcus Stafford said that while other drugs were used regularly to treat MS, it was clear Tysabri should be listed on the PBS.
He estimated at least 300 West Australians with MS could potentially benefit from the drug, a form of immuno-therapy.
Mr Stafford said the drug cut by 70 per cent the chances of people having a further attack and reduced the progression of the disability.
“The drug will be available for people but they’ll have to pay $2700 a month to get it and I don’t think there will be that many people who have a lazy $2700 net a month to pay for this, let alone the people who have a progressive disability,” he said.
“This is a shocking situation that we have people whose health would be significantly better in a relatively short period of time if we were farsighted enough to have this drug approved on the PBS.”
Kathy Balt, a 41-year-old married mother of two children aged 10 and 13, said the drug was her lifeline to retaining the limited mobility she had left.
Confined to a wheelchair, she works full-time for the Water Corporation in Northam but is worried that she could lose her sight and the use of her arms.
“I can’t tolerate any of the other disease-modifying drugs so that leaves me in a very vulnerable position,” she said.
“I don’t hold on to hope of being able to get out of my wheelchair.
“I’ve learnt to be disabled and accept that I can’t walk, but let’s not go blind and be forced out of the workforce too.”
Source: thewest.com.au West Australian Newspapers Limited 2007. All Rights Reserved(30/05/07)