Treatment of aggressive psoriatic arthritis with biological drugs, as part of the therapeutic program, will be financed by the National Health Fund, according to the regulation prepared by the Ministry of Health.
Regulation of the Ministry of Health, incl. includes the therapeutic program for the treatment of aggressive psoriatic arthritis in the list of guaranteed benefits. The draft regulation has been submitted for external consultation.
Psoriatic arthritis – PsA – is a chronic inflammatory disease that is characterized by the presence of inflammation of the joints in a person with psoriasis of the skin or nails. According to the Ministry, the mainstay of PsA treatment are disease-modifying drugs (DMARDs). In turn, biological drugs – in accordance with world standards – are used in patients who have not been helped by classic DMARDs, emphasizes MZ.
The Ministry of Health emphasizes that the use of biological drugs gives the only possibility of inhibiting the disease in most patients – it inhibits the progression of radiological changes, so it does not lead to disability; improves the quality of life of patients by greatly improving skin lesions in patients with concomitant skin or nail psoriasis.
The condition for qualifying for treatment under the therapeutic program will be the failure of previous treatment with at least two drugs that modify the course of the disease, i.e. not replacing them, but supplementing the therapeutic possibilities – emphasizes MZ. Patients will be eligible for the program by the Coordination Team for Biological Treatment in Rheumatic Diseases.
The cost of the program, in the opinion of the Ministry of Health, will cost the National Health Fund about PLN 36 million annually, assuming that about a thousand patients a year will participate in it. The Ministry of Health proposes that the regulation should enter into force three months after its promulgation.
The cause of PsA is unknown, but there is a genetic component in the pathogenesis of the disease. The course of the disease is varied. The onset may be acute and resemble a gout attack or a rheumatic fever. More often, however, symptoms develop gradually. The disease has periods of exacerbation and periods of poorly expressed symptoms.