HAEMOPHILIA: TREATMENT AND CARE “UNDER ANALYSIS”
29 April 2006

HAEMOPHILIA: TREATMENT AND CARE “UNDER ANALYSIS”TO SUPPORT THE NATIONAL HEALTH SYSTEM                                                                                                                      29 April 2006In recent decades, the important aim of ensuring an appreciable increase in life expectancy for haemophilic patients has been achieved. Treatment and care, however, are a significant burden on health costs. The Global Survey carried out by the World Federation for Haemophilia (www.wfh.org) in 2004, involving 96 countries representing about 85% of the world’s population, identified 93,116 patients with haemophilia A and 18,830 with haemophilia B.  Currently, for treatment of haemophilia A, a total equivalent to 2.6 billion US dollars is invested in factor VIII concentrate, 43% of which is distributed in North America, 41% in Europe and 18% in Asia (the remainder being divided between South America, Oceania and Africa). For treatment of haemophilia B, 450.6 million US dollars is invested in factor IX, 48% of which is distributed in North America, 33% in Europe and 8% in Asia (the remainder being divided between South America, Oceania and Africa). The indispensable aim of improving the health conditions and quality of life of the sick, therefore, has to be measured against available resources.  In its work as a strategic partner of the National Health System and with its objective of helping to achieve self-sufficiency in plasma derivates, Kedrion Biopharmaceutical SpA, the leading company in the sector in Italy, has decided to sponsor a series of pharmaeconomics symposia on this subject. Pharmaeconomics assesses different treatments to identify which, amongst the most effective, has the best cost/benefit relationship, where cost means not only health costs and benefit includes benefits as regards patients’ quality of life.  The first symposium, Regional health costs and pharmacoeconomics: with reference to haemophilia, organised by the Centre for Pharmacoeconomics at the University of Milan in conjunction with Kedrion Biopharmaceutical, the Angelo Bianchi Bonomi Centre for Haemophilia and Thrombosis, and the Charta Foundation, took place on the 28th of April in Milan in the Regional Council of Lombardy. A further two symposia will follow in September and October in Turin and Florence. The cycle will continue in 2007.

KEDRION