ABPI worried about Prolia use
pharmafile | March 10, 2014 | News story | Sales and Marketing | ABPI, Amgen, NHS, Xgeva
The ABPI has once again voiced concern that NHS patients in some areas of England are not getting access to drugs which have been approved by cost watchdog NICE.
The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) has produced the fourth quarterly Innovation Scorecard, which includes for the first time new ‘heat maps’ illustrating where medicines are used.
“There appears to be significant unexplained variation in usage at local area for many medicines illustrated by this new mapping data,” the ABPI said in a statement.
It wants local commissioners to be ‘more assertive’ in their use of NICE-approved drugs and says the ‘most significant’ example of this is a ten-fold difference in the usage of Amgen’s osteoporosis treatment Prolia (denosumab).
The last quarter shows variation in cost (£ per 1,000 females over 50) of between £24.09 in East Anglia to £228.94 in Merseyside, according to the new map.
In January the ABPI highlighted a similar problem, calling on the NHS to explain the ‘substantial variation’ in NHS patients’ access to medicines throughout England.
This came after another HSCIC report on the use of NICE-appraised medicines in the NHS in England, again showed a marked difference in usage between local area teams with Prolia.
There are several good reasons why there should be such variation – for example the differences in demographic make-up between regions means that there would never be parity between them in terms of the supply of a specific drug.
However, the differences may also illustrate problems such as lack of funding, differences in local interpretation of NICE guidance and insufficient services and care pathways.
The scorecard was introduced after the Innovation Health and Wealth initiative, launched by the government in December 2011, identified the need to reduce variation and strengthen compliance of uptake of NICE technology appraisals.
“We welcome to introduction of the heat map data as it makes it easier for patients and the NHS to see which areas of the country patients may still not be getting access to medicines,” said ABPI chief executive Stephen Whitehead.
“This should enable important conversations to take place about the reasons for this variation, and it is time for more assertive local action. Whilst we welcome this more visual information as it improves transparency, it doesn’t address the issue that, some patients are at a disadvantage because of local barriers to medicines use,” he concluded.
Adam Hill
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