מתוך medicontext.co.il
By Marilyn Bitomsky
GOLD COAST, Australia (Reuters Health) – Australian women with advanced breast cancer do not have access to Herceptin, which has been available to women in the United States with this stage of disease for more than 2 years, attendees of the Australasian Society for Breast Disease held were told.
According to Dr. Frances Boyle, medical oncologist at Sydney's Mater and Royal North Shore Hospitals and senior medical advisor to the National Breast Cancer Centre, the efficacy data on Herceptin have been presented to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) in Australia on three occasions and have been rejected every time, most recently 2 weeks ago.
The reason for rejection was financial, as the total cost would be about $A10 million. "That is deemed by the PBAC to be too much to extend the survival of women with advanced breast cancer," Dr. Boyle said.
"The community has not had an opportunity to debate that issue because the workings of the PBAC are largely secret," she continued. "The difficulty is that there is no appeal process against PBAC decisions. All that can be done is to resubmit, but this means a 6-month delay before it can be considered again."
The cost of the drug has already dropped because of the lower value of the Australian dollar, and the drug's manufacturer has said there is no more room to maneuver.
"We are at a complete impasse. In the meantime, Australian women are missing out on a drug which could provide them with significant benefit," Dr. Boyle asserted. She said some health funds are paying for Herceptin treatment for a limited time for individual patients, but they are under no obligation to do so. No Australian health insurance products comprehensively cover cancer treatment.
"At present there is very limited access to Herceptin for Australian women, unless their insurance company agrees to pay for it or else they are very wealthy," Dr. Boyle concluded.
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