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Hepatitis C support group pushes for new treatments

A new treatment, proved effective in other countries, is yet to be included in the HSE’s drugs reimbursement list.

POSITIVE ACTION, A support group for women infected with hepatitis C in Ireland as a result of contaminated blood products has called on the HSE to fund the most up-to-date and effective treatments for its members.

Last week, the HSE’s monthly update of what drugs it will reimburse failed to include telaprevir and boceprevir despite their proven efficacy.

Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Detta Warnock, spokesperson for Positive Action, says the group feels very strongly that the treatments should be made available by the HSE.

The organisation, which represents 732 women who contracted hepatitis C from Anti-D injections between 1970 and 1994, says that a 1996 healthcare package granted to them under the Health Amendment Act provides for medication fee of charge.

“It is very important that it should be reimbursed,” adds Warnock.

The telaprevir and boceprevir treatments – when given with ribavirin and alpha interferon as a triple therapy – have seen impressive results in other countries. Warnock says that when the drug is added to the current dual treatment programme, success rates double from 40 per cent to about 80 per cent.

Although the treatment can improve a patient’s chance of getting rid of hepatitis C, the decision to undergo the treatment is not taken lightly.

“It is a chemotherapy based drug with huge side effects,” explains Warnock. “Women suffer flu-like symptoms, rash, anaemia and heavy but not complete loss of hair.”

It is a big undertaking, she says, that is much more favourable if the odds of working are increased.

Currently, there are some women receiving the most up-to-date triple treatment under a named-patient programme at the Mater hospital in Dublin but drug companies are footing the bill to get the product out to market.

Telaprevir has passed all the necessary licensing requirements but for it to be made widely available, it must be reimbursed by the HSE, concluded Warnock.

A growing concern for Pharma

A source at the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA) told TheJournal.ie that its members have reported an increasing amount of medicines being held up despite having gone through the required regulatory processes.

It is a matter of great concern to the companies involved in bringing innovative products to Irish patients, he said.

As well as the obvious impact on patients, there is also a negative effect on business and decisions on future investment.

The IPHA is also aware of breakthrough drugs for MS patients being held up in a similar fashion.

The Irish healthcare system operates in a way which sees about 80 per cent of medicines funded by various State schemes – including the GMS and drug payment, long-term illness and hi-tech schemes.

The Government has told the IPHA that it wants at least €112 million in savings on its medicines bill in 2012. This follows the delivery of savings of €240 million by the industry over the past two years.

The last agreement between the IPHA and the Government included a clause that the State would continue to add new medicines to the reimbursement list to ensure as comprehensive supply as possible. That 2006 agreement which was extended in 2010 has now lapsed and negotiations between the two sides are continuing.

Value for money?

In a statement to TheJournal.ie, the HSE said that it continues to approve all medicines for which it believes there is robust evidence that they are “cost effective and budget neutral”.

In relation to telaprivir, it said that it expects a significant budget impact and has referred the product to the Drugs Group established in 2011 to consider how medicines can be introduced into clinical care pathways “as and when HSE resources become available”.

HSE is working with treatment centres to ensure that all appropriate arrangements and controls are in place to support optimal use prior to final approval by the HSE.

It is understood that treatment could cost up to to €50,000 per year per patient.

After an evaluation in January this year, the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics said it considers telapevir a “highly cost effective therapy” when added to the current dual treatment of interferon and ribavirin of patients infected in the Irish healthcare setting.

About 1,200 women were contaminated with hepatitis C when they received anti-D immunoglobulin manufactured or distributed by the Irish Blood Transfusion Service between 1970 and 1994.

The blood product was administered to new mothers of a certain blood type to prevent haemolytic disease in the foetus of future babies. Warnock said that about 67 of Postive Action’s members have died since it was established in 1994.

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5 Comments
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    Mute Johnneary
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    Feb 2nd 2016, 9:50 AM

    Meanwhile
    An unknown shelf company buys a company in a tax haven somewhere to minimise paying tax in their own country.

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    Mute Rory J Leonard
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    Feb 2nd 2016, 10:09 AM

    Yes, and said company’s latest project is to launch an A to Z Guide on how to ship $10 bn annual profits tax free out of various western jurisdictions in a captainless boat to a Caribbean Island tax haven.

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    Mute Dave Meagher
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    Feb 2nd 2016, 10:17 AM

    Along with the rest of the multinationals.

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    Mute Moderate Michael
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    Feb 2nd 2016, 9:47 AM

    Only way for Apple is down, unless they start innovating, which is unlikely to happen since the end of the Steve Jobs era.

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    Mute Johnneary
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    Feb 2nd 2016, 9:52 AM

    Maybe so
    Plenty of shilling in the bank to whittle away in the meantime.
    http://www.businessinsider.com/global-cash-reserves-companies-nations-2014-4?IR=T

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    Mute John R
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    Feb 2nd 2016, 10:55 AM

    Moderate Michael, Apple has been written off so many times and has always bounced back. It would be unwise to write them off based on stock market valuations. So it’s only the second most valuable company in the world ? And this means they’re on the way down? I would have thought that it was an indicator of success.

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    Mute Stephen Earle
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    Feb 2nd 2016, 3:54 PM

    Michael, living in the cloud, no pun intended, if you think Apple is going down or even if it cares about Google.
    Google makes basically no product, Apple is a product based company. If it only makes 99% of a gazillion instead of the full gazillion the 20 year old stockmarket jockeys write it off again.
    In reality they force the price down, buy in at the new lower price then sell again a month later ehen the shares have recovered. Oldest trick in the business

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    Mute John R
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    Feb 2nd 2016, 10:53 AM

    Alphabet “… made a profit of $4.9 billion (€4.48 billion) in the last quarter of 2015, and saw its value rise to $568 billion (€520 billion) in after-hours trading, beating Apple’s value of $535 billion (€490 billion).”

    Apple made a profit of $11.1 billion in the last quarter of 2015 and has more cash in the bank than the GDP of many European nations, over $200 billion. I wouldn’t worry too much about stock market valuations because they are so fickle. Anyone who writes Apple of is stupid. Largest or second largest company in the world? Is it really important?

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    Mute Michael Hodges
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    Feb 2nd 2016, 10:00 AM

    Whoever clicks on those adds?

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    Mute Dave Davis
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    Feb 2nd 2016, 10:35 AM

    As someone who works in the industry (and it is an entire industry), I can’t tell you that a LOT of people click on those ads. In search, between 30-50 percent click on them depending on the search term (older, less tech savvy people are more likely).

    Increasingly, more and more clicks are being driven from the display network as Google provides better ways to filter out the crap.

    Those remarketing ads that “follow” you around, it would shock you how well they work. When they were first released, I refused to use them, believing everyone was like me, creeped out and would simply install an ad blocker. I was wrong. Very wrong.

    Now, advertisers even have access to show you those remarketing ads based on your email address. This is still in beta but it works even better than regular remarketing lists. If I have your email address and it’s a Google email address, I can tell Google to show you my ads on the display network. Even if you’ve never had any interaction with me.

    Google/Alphabet is going to become even more valuable this year. It’s advertising and analytics products are incredible. Whether you agree with advertising or not, they’re going from strength to strength. It would scare the crap out of you how much data about you that advertisers have. In Ireland, it’s pretty easy to build up a database of the entire population. Statistically, you’re likely to be in one of mine.

    The rise in use of ad blockers (which on most of them, Google ads are whitelisted by default) is more than offset by the rise in new people using the Internet.

    Google also have an entire team dedicated to making sure ads are not intrusive. I wouldn’t be shorting their stock any time soon.

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    Mute iohanx
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    Feb 2nd 2016, 11:15 AM

    Knock it if you will, just remember Googles stock is part of millions of people’s pension funds.

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    Mute Michael Sullivan
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    Feb 2nd 2016, 9:59 AM

    This is the best clickbait headline I have read this year.
    i just had to click to click. Fair play.

    3
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