Cardiologists are urging Pharmac to fund life-saving SGLT2 inhibitors for heart failure. Video / NZ Herald
Heart services are in “crisis” and people are being hospitalised and dying years too young because proper drugs aren’t funded by Pharmac for chronic heart failure, cardiologists warn.
The Cardiac Society, which is the professional body for cardiologists, is calling on Pharmac to use a boost in funding to cover SGLT2 inhibitor drugs for all people with chronic heart failure.
Those medicines are not new, and have long been standard of care in comparable developed countries including the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.
The drugs protect the heart from getting weaker, and can greatly extend the life of patients, ease debilitating symptoms like fatigue, and reduce hospitalisations.
In New Zealand, these vital medications are only funded for Type 2 diabetics who meet certain criteria, including being at high risk of heart and kidney complications.
“It’s not acceptable to have patients self-fund treatment that is standard of care in other public health care systems, particularly given the fact that cardiovascular disease remains the number one cause of mortality in New Zealand.
“The statistics around heart failure have not improved, and it’s becoming more prevalent in young patients.”
Currently, Fairley and her colleagues have to tell many patients who desperately need the drugs that they must pay around $100 a month, or go without.
That cost is too much for many, and the avoidable ill-health they suffer as a result widens inequity and piles pressure on public health services that are under huge strain, she said.
“I think everybody in the health service would say that we’re probably at a crisis point.”
Fairley said two of the most important drugs to promptly fund are SGLT2 inhibitors for heart failure and PCSK9 inhibitors which greatly lower cholesterol and reduce the chance of developing coronary artery disease in risky patients.
She trained in the United Kingdom, and attended a meeting there last year where cardiologists were aghast to learn these long-established and highly-effective medicines aren’t properly funded in New Zealand.
“The fact that we have to plead to try and get these drugs approved without special authority for our patients, I don’t think it’s acceptable.”
Funding the drugs would save the whole system money, Fairley said, given they significantly reduce rates of hospitalisation from heart failure, improve a person’s quality of life and life expectancy.
“We’re talking about adding years to people’s lives, keeping people out of hospital, and potentially avoiding the need for other more expensive devices like pacemakers. SGLT2 inhibitors in combination with other modern drugs provide 8.3 additional years of life free from cardiovascular death or hospitalisation for heart failure.”
Associate Health Minister David Seymour and Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Following backlash over its failure to fund promised cancer drugs in the Budget, last week the Government announced an extra $604 million over four years for Pharmac, which will enable funding of 54 new medicines, most of which are yet to be confirmed.
The media focus has been on cancer drugs, which is welcomed by the Cardiac Society, Fairley said. However, it hopes money will be found to improve the lives of thousands of New Zealanders living with heart disease that could be managed much better.
Cardiovascular diseases (including stroke) kill nearly 10,000 New Zealanders every year. Experts estimate almost a quarter of those deaths are avoidable through better prevention and timely access to healthcare, including the inhibitor drugs.
That increases to half of all deaths among Māori and Pasifika.
