Therapy for Morquio syndrome and hepatitis C at the state's expense to become available soon

Patients suffering from the Morquio syndrome will soon get the needed therapy, and it has also been agreed with representatives of four pharmaceutical companies for patients with hepatitis C to also be provided with the latest therapy at the state's expense, the National Health Insurance Fund confirmed for RTS.

The plan for centralized public procurement of new medical drugs will be adopted on February 8, RTS reports.

– After we adopt the plan for centralized public procurement at a session of the Managing Board of the NHIF on February 8, we will start procuring the medicine. This will take about a month – notes the acting director of the NHIF, Sanja Radojevic Skodric.

The NHIF confirms that therapy for the Batten disease has been secured for the first time as well and that patients can't get this therapy in much richer countries at the expense of the state. It has also been agreed with representatives of four pharmaceutical companies for the latest therapy for hepatitis C, entailing full elimination of the virus, to be provided as well.

– The pharmaceutical companies have given a very good offer, so the proposition of special agreements has been forwarded to the central commission and we hope that patients with hepatitis C will get this modern therapy as well. There are around 60 such patients, and if the number increases, the pharmaceutical companies will provide therapy for additional patients as well. All of them have also donated tests that must be performed before the therapy – Skodric says.

The NHIF and the Ministry of Health announce that the Central Expert Committee for Medicines will have sessions each month and that pharmaceutical companies will be enabled to submit requests for putting innovative drugs on the reimbursement list throughout the year, instead of once a year, as has been the case so far.

Their requests will be considered every three months, and the reimbursement list will be expanded in line with the NHIF's funds. Patients in Serbia expect innovative drugs to reach them through the reimbursement list much more quickly than before.

As the Association of the Manufacturers of Innovative Drugs recently clarified for eKapija, in order for innovative drugs to be as available to patients in Serbia as in the countries in its surroundings, it is necessary for at least twenty new innovative medicaments to be put on the list each year in the next period.

Republički fond za zdravstveno osiguranje Beograd

Ministarstvo zdravlja Republike Srbije

NHIF

Central Expert Committee for Medicines

Morquio syndrome patients

hepatitis C therapy

hepatitis c

plan for centralized public procurement of new medical drugs

centralized public procurement of new medical drugs

Sanja Radojevic Skodric

infectology

Batten disease

Batten disease therapy

innovative drugs

innovative drugs at states expense

innovative therapy

reimbursement list

innovative medicaments