Despite promises from the health ministry, patients with severe asthma still do not have access to an expensive biological medicine. That is why they are excluded from life, imprisoned in homes and hospitals, and the costs of their treatment are rising at a tremendous pace – doctors and patients are alarming.
On Wednesday, at a press conference organized in the capital, specialists in the field of asthma treatment and patients appealed to Minister of Health Bartosz Arłukowicz to sign a treatment program for this group of patients using an antibody called omalizumab.
According to the reply sent to PAP on Wednesday by the spokesman of the Ministry of Health, Agnieszka Gołąbek, applications for reimbursement of omalizumab under the drug program “passed the stages of examining the application specified in the Reimbursement Act until the final completion of the process, i.e. the decision of the Minister of Health in this area”. However, it did not specify when the program can be expected to be signed by the minister of health.
“Severe asthma is a problem that affects living people. Our children, mothers and grandparents suffer from it – explained Dr. Piotr Dąbrowiecki, president of the Federation of Asthma, Allergy and COPD Patients, which organized the meeting. – We have an excellent method of therapy that can change their lives. It is a standard in allergology in the European Union countries. Without reimbursement, Poland is in the tail of Europe in the treatment of severe asthma ”.
The monthly cost of such treatment is estimated at over PLN 3. zloty.
Dr. Dąbrowiecki recalled that the first version of the program for treating people with severe asthma with omalizumab was prepared by a national consultant in the field of allergology, Prof. Jerzy Kruszewski, already in 2006, the Agency for Health Technology Assessment (AOTM) gave the program a positive recommendation three times – the last time it took place in August 2012. However, it has not yet been implemented.
According to experts, this not only leads to the exclusion of patients from professional, family and social activity, but also significantly increases the costs of their treatment.
“Due to constant exacerbations (including life-threatening breathlessness attacks – PAP), these patients constantly go to hospital and emergency departments, many of them almost live in the hospital” – explained Dr. Dąbrowiecki. He emphasized that hospital treatment is the most expensive in the treatment of asthma.
Stanisław Skupień, who suffers from severe asthma, recalled at the conference that from February 2008 to October 2009 he was hospitalized 11 times, and to the hospital emergency department – five times.
According to the allergist prof. Piotr Kuna, director of the University Teaching Hospital in Łódź, the only solution for patients with severe asthma in Poland is to use high doses of oral steroids. But such therapy causes costly health complications in a very short time, such as obesity, diabetes, cataracts, hypertension, and osteoporosis.
During two years of such therapy, Stanisław Skupień developed four additional chronic diseases.
“For years we have been trying to explain to the Ministry of Health and the National Health Fund that treatment with omalizumab is cheaper than standard treatment,” said the patient. The data presented by him show that for a standard treated patient, annual expenses of nearly PLN 91 thousand are expected. zloty. But without biological therapy, these costs grow at an alarming rate in the following years – in the third year they already amount to an estimated PLN 200 million (including costs of hospitalization, pharmacotherapy, complications after administering oral steroids, costs of sick leave and disability pensions). The annual cost of treatment with omalizumab is estimated at approx. PLN 40 thousand.
“Poorly treated asthma carries huge social costs as it is a disease mainly of young people. Why are we depriving these people of the right to a normal life? ” – said prof. Marten.
According to Mr. Stanisław, during a meeting with patients in February 2012, Minister Arłukowicz promised that as soon as the procedures were completed, the omalizumab treatment program would enter into force. “The procedures were fulfilled, but access to treatment is not there,” emphasized Stanisław.
Prof. Kuna told PAP that approximately 1200 patients may qualify for omalizumab treatment in Poland. Currently, 50 of them receive such therapy in several hospitals in Poland.
One of the patients who received treatment in this way is Izabela Pańczyk. “Right now, I am dividing my life into pre-omalizumab treatment and post-treatment,” she said. In the first period, she practically sat only in a sterile, dust-free house, she could not go anywhere without fear of exacerbation of the disease. She was also often hospitalized. Now she can work again – she teaches children in grades 1-3, she has stopped taking steroids and has regained her normal body weight and appearance, and can visit friends and family. I came back to life – she emphasized (PAP)
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