Within six months, the high-tech medicine for patients with Haemophilia 'A' will be available. Expectation is that 10 000 people are benefiting
The Unified Health System (SUS) benefit about 10 thousand Brazilians with free offer of a high-tech medicine to control bleeding in patients with hemophilia A. The Ministry of Health approved on Thursday (7) the use of recombinant factor VIII, which will be available within six months of blood centers in the country for this type of treatment. ...
Brazil also happens to produce the drug nationally, through technology transfer. It is the result of Productive Development Partnership (PDP) signed in October 2012 with the Brazilian Blood Products and Biotechnology (Hemobrás). The expectation is that the ministry go to purchase the drug at a price less than four times the average paid to meet the current lawsuits.
The partnership expands the population's access to medicines more modern and efficient and qualifies the attention given to hemophilia patients. "This is the treatment that is most advanced in the world. With domestic production, the country will be able to meet about 90% of patients with the disease, except for patients intolerant to treatment, "said Health Minister Alexandre Padilha.
With the same efficacy and safety as the plasma factor, already offered in the SUS, the new drug has the advantage of not relying on blood donations, which limits production. Studies show that the rate of successful treatment with recombinant factor VIII is less than 90%. Currently, 97% of treatments for hemophilia performed in SUS occur with use of human plasma (plasma).
The remaining 3% are patients already receiving treatment with recombinant factor VIII through lawsuits. To meet them, the ministry spent between $ 1.5 to $ 1.75 per unit of the product. With this new PDP, it is estimated that by 2014 the use of recombinant factor VIII should correspond to 20% of total treatments.
PARTNERSHIP - Also in 2013, Hemobrás provide 350 million international units of recombinant factor VIII at a cost of $ 120 million. This amount includes the transfer of technology.
Currently, only three companies in the world producing the drug. Through the PDP between the laboratory and the U.S. private Hemobrás Baxter, Brazil and will incorporate the technology over the next 10 years will produce the drug.
"This is a breakthrough that combines technological development, innovation and savings to the public purse. It is a technology policy at the service of social demand, "says Secretary of Science and Technology Ministry, Carlos Gadelha.
DISEASE - Hemophilia is a bleeding disorder, genetic inheritance, which leads to loss of mobility of the patient. Traumas - even the lighter that occur in the life of any child - can cause severe bleeding and life-threatening or cause sequelae. Currently, 16 000 hemophiliacs are assisted by SUS, 10 500 of them with hemophilia A and B. Of this total, 3.4 million are carriers of the severe form of the disease, characterized by bleeding in the same joint, which can lead to joint damage and in some cases disability.
Carriers depend on repeated blood transfusions and the administration of clotting factors they can not produce. In haemophilia type A, clotting factor that is missing in the body of the person is the factor VIII, and is one that should be replaced.
If untreated, the repeated joint bleeds cause deformities and loss of mobility. Prophylaxis with factor VIII applied regularly during the growth period of children prevents bleeding and prevent deformities.
Source: ASCOM / CABE
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