MADRID, Mar 27 (APM) - Spanish health minister Alfonso Alonso met with regional health chiefs to give the national hepatitis C plan the green light, including the possibility of additional price cuts as a higher number of patients receive new hepatitis C drugs, APM has learnt.
On top of pricing reductions in these agreements, some Spanish regions demanded the ministry a margin for additional discounts for bigger patient populations. The ministry agreed, sources close to the process told APM after the meeting in Madrid on Thursday.
Details of these additional discounts will be discussed at a meeting of regional authorities with the ministry of finance on April 20.
Over the past six months, Janssen's Olysio (simeprevir), Merck & Co's Victrelis (boceprevir), Gilead's Sovaldi (sofosbuvir), Bristol-Myers Squibb's Daklinza (daclatasvir), Gilead's Harvoni (sofosbuvir+ledipasvir) and AbbVie's Exviera (dasabuvir) + Viekirax (ombitasvir+paritaprevir+ritonavir) have been approved for reimbursement in Spain.
All of them received the green light under risk-sharing schemes, some of which established a maximum spend threshold whereas others were based on price-per-volume formulae. Details of the agreements have been kept confidential.
In Spain, prices of drugs are decided by the ministry of health, but regions take responsibility for purchasing them.
Spain’s national plan against hepatitis C has broadened patient groups eligible to receive direct-acting antivirals, including F2, F3 and F4 disease stages, from mild to late phases, and leaving doctors to decide on their convenience at earlier stages.
According to ministry’s data, this means at least 52,000 patients will be administered new hepatitis C drugs. There are 95,500 diagnosed hepatitis C patients in Spain, the ministry said.
This makes Spain the first country to guarantee hepatitis C patients will be treated with the new medicines, the ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
During the council of regions, Alfonso Alonso informed regional health chiefs new regulation allowing nurses to prescribe a limited number of drugs will be published in the summer.
The term preferred will be “indication” instead of “prescription” to differentiate it from doctors’ prescription, which is linked to diagnosis, the statement noted.
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