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Te Pātaka Whaioranga – Pharmac is considering funding
two medicines as part of a new bundle agreement that would
offer new treatment options for people experiencing
schizophrenia and for people with one type of blood
cancer.
In the consultation
issued today, Pharmac is seeking feedback on proposals
to:
- fund paliperidone three-monthly (branded as
Invega Trinza) for people with schizophrenia - fund
ibrutinib (branded as Imbruvica) for people with
relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukaemia following
treatment with venetoclax.
“Following the
budget increase announced in May 2022, we are working our
way through our options for investment list,” says
Pharmac’s chief medical officer Dr David Hughes. “We are
grateful to be in a position to progress the funding of more
treatments for these important therapeutic
areas.”
“Pharmac currently funds paliperidone
one-monthly (Invega Sustenna) and is now consulting on
funding the three-monthly version (Invega Trinza) for
schizophrenia. Our clinical advisors have told us that
people who meet the eligibility criteria would benefit from
the three-monthly treatment as it could reduce relapses,
carer burden, and the frequency of hospital admissions. We
estimate that over the next five years over 1,500 people
would benefit from this treatment.”
Dr Rees Tapsell,
director of clinical services at Te Whatu Ora Health New
Zealand Waikato, is supportive of this proposal, stating
that longer-acting treatments, like paliperidone
three-monthly, are known to improve quality of life. “The
reduced frequency of medication administration enables
people to focus on recovery rather than adherence and frees
up secondary care services,” says Dr Tapsell. “This
could reduce the overall burden of schizophrenia on many
Kiwis and their whānau, especially for Māori who are
affected by this condition more than
non-Māori.”
“Ibrutinib is an anticancer medicine,
which can reduce the likelihood of progression and improves
survival for people with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
Ibrutinib works differently to the currently funded
treatment venetoclax,
so our clinical advisors have recommended it for funding
when venetoclax is not effective or intolerable. Ibrutinib
is taken as an oral pill daily so it’s a very accessible
option and we estimate that in the first year, approximately
30 people would be eligible for funding, increasing to
around 100 people after five years following.”
This
consultation has been sent to health professionals, patient
groups and others who Pharmac thinks would be interested. It
is available on the Pharmac website for anyone wanting to
have their say.
“Consultation is a very important
step in our process,” says Dr Hughes. “It’s how we
check that the people who will get the most benefit from the
medicines will be able to access them. If approved, we will
also be working closely with our colleagues across the
health sector to plan for the implementation of these
treatments.”
If approved, funding for both
paliperidone and ibrutinib would commence 1 December
2022.
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