Drug standoff 'could cost lives'

A standoff between Pharmac and a multinational drug company "could potentially cost lives" and see up to 150,000 heart patients paying more for life-saving medication.

Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca this week said it was withdrawing its Betaloc heart injection from the market and would charge more for the tablet form of the drug.

Betaloc is the only registered medication of its kind in New Zealand, but AstraZeneca and Pharmac, New Zealand's drug-buying agency, have fallen out over the cost of the drug.

The Betaloc injection is given to about 3500 people a year soon after they have had a heart attack and is the only medication available for this purpose.

It is used almost daily in hospital emergency departments.

In tablet form, the heart drug is prescribed to more than 200,000 people to prevent heart attacks.

Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand chairman Dr John Elliott said the Betaloc "battle" was being waged between Pharmac and AstraZeneca at patients' expense and could potentially cost lives.

He said Pharmac's contract-negotiating process was partly responsible.

Its tendency to sign exclusive contracts with drug companies axed competition and in some cases pushed other pharmaceutical companies out of the market, he said.

This left the New Zealand public "exposed" to being left without drug stocks or having to pay more for them.

"It's of great concern that the New Zealand public are held to ransom by the whole process whereby medications are funded in New Zealand," he said.

Pharmac medical director Dr Peter Moodie said AstraZeneca was gambling with the lives of acutely ill patients to protect itself from competition.

He said the patent for Betaloc had recently expired and so other, cheaper generic brands would soon be on the market.

Rather than accepting the situation, AstraZeneca was exploiting its position as sole supplier to the market by raising the price of Betaloc tablets, Moodie said.

Pharmac spokesman Simon England said it would subsidise high-risk patients on Betaloc tablets, or about 60,000 of the 200,000 users.

The rest of users would have to pay more for medication, estimated to be between $10 and $13 for a three-month prescription, he said.

It was hoped generic alternatives to Betaloc tablets would get registration within the year.

The agency was also trying to get registration for a heart-attack injection that was in use several years ago, England said.

AstraZeneca New Zealand general manager Lance Gravatt said the company had offered Pharmac a competitive proposal on a package of heart medications when its three-year contract to supply Betaloc expired a few months ago.

He said Pharmac was a tough negotiator and AstraZeneca also had to play hard. As negotiations between the drug company and Pharmac had broken down, AstraZeneca could not continue to supply small volumes of Betaloc injections without a long-term contract to supply the larger and more lucrative tablet market, Gravatt said.

Royal College of GPs president Dr Jonathan Fox said he would advise people to pay the extra prescription charge to stay on Betaloc tablets if the medication was working for them.

- © Fairfax NZ News