In 2022, Polish patients will gain access to 84 modern therapies. The September list of reimbursed medicines will include the most expensive drug for SMA - Zolgensma. It will be available to children up to the age of six months. - Poland is one of the few countries that provide comprehensive treatment for SMA,' Adam Niedzielski emphasised during a conference at the Ministry of Health.
From September, around 4,000 medicines will be on the reimbursement list. Among them - the most expensive drug for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy, Zolgensma.
- In 2022, Polish patients gained the widest access to 84 innovative therapies - 29 for oncological indications, 55 non-oncological, including 32 for rare diseases. This is a historic reimbursement," indicated the Minister of Health.
- Zolgensma is a life-changing breakthrough drug," said Kacper Ruciński from the SMA Foundation.
The introduction of modern technologies is possible thanks to the Medical Fund. The annual reimbursement for the drug Zolgensma alone will amount to approximately PLN 300 million.
- Parents of sick children were awaiting reimbursement for the drug Zolgensma. The Medical Fund, which was established on the initiative of President Andrzej Duda, will continue to support Polish patients, said Minister Grażyna Ignaczak-Bandych, head of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland.
In Poland, treatment of spinal muscular atrophy is publicly funded from 2019. We were the first country in Europe to introduce universal screening. Between April 2021 and July 2022, almost 282,000 newborns were screened. 38 were diagnosed with SMA.
- We are one of the few countries that offer universal screening and one of the 4 that offer comprehensive treatment," enumerated Professor Piotr Czauderna, President of the President's Health Council.
Evrysdi will be the next SMA drug to be included in the September reimbursement list. Poland is thus one of the leaders in SMA treatment.
- We give access to all three drugs for SMA. This is an opportunity for newborn children to develop properly. We have excellent results in the treatment of 810 patients,' emphasised Professor Anna Kostera-Pruszczyk, Head of the Department of Neurology at the UCK WUM.
Source: www.gov.pl