Arthritis medication funding woes

Media release from Arthritis New Zealand
Poor quality of life for those denied access to medicines

For more than half a million people in New Zealand arthritis is a way of life; it is the single biggest cause of disability in this country.  Yet the medicines that could help reduce the burden of this disease are just not being made available.

In particular it is those people who are affected by the inflammatory forms of arthritis such as Rheumatoid Arthritis, Psoriatic Arthritis and Ankylosing Spondylitis that are missing out on drugs proven to be beneficial to them.  These drugs are a class of medicines called biologics which have the potential to greatly reduce the destruction to bones, joints and tendons caused by chronic inflammation and boost the quality of life of sufferers.

“The impact for people receiving these medications is amazing and quantifiable,” says Ms Sandra Kirby, Arthritis New Zealand Chief Executive.  “We are fighting for access to drugs that people in other OECD countries have access to.”

In New Zealand people with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) have access to one kind of these biologic medicines, through PHARMAC funding, if they qualify.  However, 30% of RA sufferers are incompatible with the funded option and need a second choice; Psoriatic Arthritis sufferers don’t have a funded biologic option at all.

“We need more options for one disease and options for more than just the one disease,” says Sandra Kirby.  “The current cost-benefit model of funding works for RA and JIA but because the other inflammatory arthritis conditions have smaller numbers the equation misses them out.”

Those who are not eligible for the funded drugs often emerge themselves in debt to pay for the treatment themselves or turn to less recommended ways to obtain the medication.One man with Psoriatic Arthritis who takes Humira (a biologic) says he needs to earn $40,000 a year just to pay for the drug, let alone all his other living expenses, but without it he is unable to work at all and his overall quality of life decreases dramatically.

A study [1] released in 2005 shows that half the burden of disease for arthritis comes from lost productivity – more than 25,000 people affected by arthritis are of working age.People who take these biologics stay in work longer, require less care, have fewer hospital stays and are less dependent on the state.

The current funding for Pharmac, the drug buying agency, does not give sufficient access to biologic medicines for people with inflammatory arthritis. The Government needs to make arthritis a health priority as well as increasing the PHARMAC budget – they may be high cost but look at the cost of NOT funding them.