HUNDREDS of people in Scotland suffering from a potentially fatal lung disease are to be offered a new treatment on the NHS.
Patients with a rare condition that causes scarring of the lungs and makes breathing increasingly difficult will be able to access Pirfenidone on prescription within months.
The Scottish Medicines Consortium, the body that decides which drugs offer best value for money for NHS use, has approved it to treat mild-to-moderate idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).
Pirfenidone, which is branded Esbriet, slows the decline in sufferers' lung tissue. It is priced at about £26,100 per full year of treatment, or about £8 per capsule in Scotland.
The drug is the only known treatment for the condition, which affects 500 to 800 people in Scotland. The illness worsens over time and is often fatal. Without treatment half of sufferers will die within three years.
The condition is difficult to diagnose because symptoms resemble those of other lung diseases, leading many sufferers to make repeat visits to the doctor and endure a string of misdiagnoses before the disease is finally identified.
Dr Nik Hirani, from Edinburgh University, said: "Pirfenidone is the only drug that has shown proven efficacy in IPF, a progressive and life-threatening condition.
"It is excellent news that the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has decided to make it available to patients in Scotland, as it is in other EU countries. This will ensure that, where clinically appropriate, patients will be rapidly provided with access to this treatment."
Rory Cameron, general manager for manufacturer InterMune UK and Ireland, said: "Patients in Scotland have previously not had access to any licensed medicines for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Making pirfenidone available within NHS Scotland is a great step forward in addressing a genuine unmet need for IPF patients."
Pirfenidone is already available on the NHS to patients in England and Wales after the National Institute For Health And Care Excellence approved the drug in March.
Meanwhile, the SMC has also approved another drug for use for sufferers of severe rheumatoid arthritis.
It accepted abatacept solution for subcutaneous injection, which is branded Orencia, for use within NHS Scotland. It can be used in combination with methotrexate, a disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug, as a first-line biologic agent for adults with the condition.
The drug can also be used earlier in the treatment, providing doctors with greater treatment options and benefitting the patients who suffer from this disabling chronic disease.
Up to 217,000 people are affected by the condition in Scotland.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article