Summary
The New Zealand government plans to soon drop the asthma drug its residents have used for 30 years in favor of a less expensive drug that will save about $1.7 million each 18 months. But patient advocates say the move will likely result in more asthma related deaths. The advocates say the new drug is administered via inhalers that often become blocked, and therefore do not work, just when patients need them most.
Original source:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10120596
Details
- More than half a million New Zealand asthmatics who rely on Ventolin puffers face switching to a cheaper drug which users complain is prone to blocking inhalers.
- The Government's medicine buyer, Pharmac, is to stop paying for Ventolin, used for 30 years, from July 1 in favour of a sole-supply contract for the cheaper drug Salamol.
- The agency is talking to the medicines regulator Medsafe about independent testing of the device by the Institute of Environmental Science and Research.
- One asthma sufferer said yesterday that she had changed to Salamol but wanted to switch back as she got less relief from the new drug and the inhaler clogged until she washed it, effectively stopping her puffing in the medication.
- GlaxoSmithKline New Zealand said it could continue supplying the country with Ventolin if there were enough users willing to pay for it.
- The Government pays $6 before GST and mark-ups for each Ventolin inhaler, but Ms Bright would not say what the likely retail price would be after the subsidy ends.
- Ruth Williams, general manager of Salamol's supplier, Asthma and Respiratory Foundation subsidiary Air Flow Products, said blockages could be avoided by regular washing, as recommended for both medicines.
- CFC-free Salamol and its predecessor had been sold in Britain for 18 years, showing it was "an effective, proven and trusted inhaler".
- But the Asthma New Zealand patient support group highlighted a small British study which found that one in five Salamol inhalers - but no Ventolin inhalers - clogged even when washed, shaken and primed.
- It was expected that alcoholics and parents of some children would also object to the presence of alcohol, Mr Hanna said, and relying on a sole supplier created risks like those experienced with the flu vaccine.
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