Advantage: Aclasta only needs to be administered once a year
Posted on 10/10/2007 11:31:57 PM PDT by Stoat
The first once-a-year drug proven to dramatically cut the risk of broken bones in older women is launched today.
But despite its high success rate, campaigners warn it may never be prescribed on the NHS on the grounds of cost.
It comes as osteoporosis specialists challenge proposed prescription restrictions put forward by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, the Health Service's rationing body.
Trials on the new treatment Aclasta show it cuts the risk of hip fractures in post-menopausal women by 41 per cent and reduces spinal fractures by 70 per cent if taken for three years.
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Advantage: Aclasta only needs to be administered once a year
Some 60,000 hip fractures and 120,000 fractures of the spine occur annually in the UK. Each broken hip costs £12,000 on average to treat.
But under new NICE proposals, doctors will be allowed only to use the cheapest drug available. For osteoporosis sufferers this would mean being treated with Alendronate, which costs 14p a day.
A quarter of women taking it go on to develop chronic side effects, including stomach pains, or do not respond to treatment.
One of the biggest advantages of Aclasta is that it needs only to be taken once a year, compared to other monthly alternatives.
It has proved to be especially useful for patients who have difficulty swallowing or digesting tablets. Many are required to fast before taking the current drugs and have to stay upright for an hour afterwards.
Made by pharmaceutical company Novartis, Aclasta is given as a drip into the arm, which takes 15 minutes. It is normally administered in hospital outpatient clinics although, under NHS reforms, it may soon be allowed in GP surgeries.
Aclasta costs £284 a year - about £5.50 a day - which is similar to the cost of current monthly treatments used by the Health Service, but under threat from the new NICE guidelines.
David Reid, Professor of Rheumatology at the University of Aberdeen, said: "Preventing hip fractures remains one of the main aims of treating osteoporosis. Three months after a hip fracture, nearly one in five elderly patients will die.
"Reducing hip fractures by 41 per cent is therefore highly clinically significant."
The drug will now be evaluated by NICE and its equivalent body in Scotland to determine whether it offers value for money, although no timetable has yet been set.
However, campaigners are warning that the proposals for prescription restrictions in England will effectively block the drug.
The National Osteoporosis Society is appealing against them, saying hundreds of thousands of patients will be left untreated.
Nick Rijke, director of public and external affairs at the NOS, said: "The addition of another option for GPs to use in treating osteoporosis should be great news.
"But NICE has a stranglehold on medical progress, taking far too long to consider the effectiveness of drugs and then becoming so obsessed with cost that many people cannot benefit from the advances being made in medical science.
"If NICE guidance goes ahead unchanged, patients will be at the whim of purse-holding PCTs. This brings back postcode prescribing."
Look for similarly 'enlightened' policies if HillaryCare is ever allowed to gain a foothold here in the USA.
ping
I suppose Brits can do the same as Americans have to if they want this drug - pay for it themselves.
Wouldn't the cost per day be £284/365=approx. £.78?
LOL, I was just about to pull out my calculator and figure this. I looked at the figures and did a double take.
So which number is right, the per day or the per year. If the drug is infused the 284 might just be the cost of the drug, and the 5 per day the cost of the drug plus infusion costs.
ping
. . . One of the biggest advantages of Aclasta is that it needs only to be taken once a year, compared to other monthly alternatives.
. . . But under new NICE proposals, doctors will be allowed only to use the cheapest drug available. For osteoporosis sufferers this would mean being treated with Alendronate, which costs 14p a day.
A quarter of women taking it go on to develop chronic side effects, including stomach pains, or do not respond to treatment.
The fundamental boast of socialism is that it will make things (especially health care) cheap. But what this article plainly illustrates is that cheap is not always economical. Cheap can also be penny wise and pound foolish.Socialism is (obviously) a power grab. When socialism seizes from consumers the authority to reward quality, the result is shoddy quality. Especially when compared to what actual progress can deliver as opposed to what the faux "progressivism" of socialism produces.
Take note of how Hillary and the rest prattle about delivering "quality health care." The fundamental fact is that Hillarycare is an attack on the providers of health care and especially on their ability to prosper by improving the quality of health care. We look back on the past and pity our ancestors for the pathetic lack of medical technology which tended to make life "nasty, brutish, and short." The issue we now face is whether we will continue to deliver to our posterity the blessings of liberty in improvements of health care as yet scarcely dreamed of, or whether we will sell their heritage for an (illusory) mess of pottage.
The NHS is either pound foolish or happy to let the high mortality rate following hip fractures cut future expenses.
Aclasta reduces spinal fractures 70% as compared to the oral Rx 40 to 50%
I did a little more reading on the drug and found that overall post menapausal bone recovery was the same for the weekly drug as for the annual.
The main reason for this drug is patient non-compliance, a high percentage stop taking the drug after one year of use. As you said, let the patient pay for the extra cost.
Guess what it costs in the US? Over $1000.
A quarter of women taking [Alendronate] go on to develop chronic side effects, including stomach pains, or do not respond to treatment.That could have something to do with the noncompliance . . .
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