10 Sep 2009

What price good health?

UK women are being denied access to a more effective osteoporosis drug because they're just not sick enough

The Guardian recently ran a story about a new drug for osteoporosis that women are currently being denied in the UK.

Zoledronate is said to be a better drug because it replaces the current drug, alendronate, with an annual injection. Alendronate, in contrast, has to be taken daily, and there are some side-effects and dietary restrictions.

The main issue, as ever, is cost - zolendronate is five times the cost of alendronate.

The cost, however, is ridiculously small, at £250 per year.

A significant number of patients even refuse to take the weekly alendronate pill because of its uncomfortable side-effects. But they are not offered the alternative of zoledronate, because they are not ill enough to qualify for it.

Surely the cost of this new treatment should be offset not against the cost of alendronate but against the ultimate cost of treating bone fractures in women with osteoporosis.

In the late 1970s, my grandmother fell and broke a hip. She was never the same again, and over the next ten years, must have cost the NHS a fortune, not to mention the costs of treating my grandfather who was worn out with looking after her and had a heart attack.

It is about time that NICE got its act together.

And it strikes me, while we're at it, that if osteoporosis was a disease that affected men and not women, the money would be forthcoming a lot quicker.

By Trish

Comments (2)

Tags: osteoporosis

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Shelley
Posts: 2

NHS prescribing
Reply #2 on : Thu September 10, 2009, 07:04:00

I would think that an annual injection would pay for itself in the staff time involved in dishing out tablets.

I deal with the NHS routinely due to my asthma for which I take tablets and use an inhaler. In the States, once the doctor was happy you had the right meds, he would write a script that would last you until your next review, usually a year. Then you banked it with a pharmacy and went along for a monthly supply until the script ran out. Not here. Every 2 months I have to get a new prescription -- giving them 48 hours notice -- and find a pharmacy to fill it; they often haven't enough in stock and I have to keep a bit of paper to return for the rest that I paid for. The only reason I can think of for such an archaic system is to give them more desk work 'reviewing prescriptions' and less time with those awful people who come to see them. Oh well, I chose to live here and deal with the NHS. I don't look forward to figuring out health insurance when we go back to the States.

Glyn
Posts: 2

Osteoporosis
Reply #1 on : Sun September 20, 2009, 02:50:39

It's time that all women aged 50- 55 were screened for osteoporosis as they are for other diseases.
My friend and I both paid for private DEXA scans in our mid-late 40s- she because of her mother's battle witht he disease andme out of curiosity- we both got a shock to find our bones were a bit below average density. We have now done things about it, to prevent the need for drugs if we possibly can.
All women should arrange a scan for themselves or it should be offered on the NHS.