Among the drugs that the basket committee will discuss: drugs for chronic diseases, cancer, heart disease and difficulties with attention and concentration
Basket Committee discussions
Photography:
GPO
Tomorrow (Monday) the concluding discussions of the Drug Basket Committee will begin.
If the discussions go as planned, the final list of dozens of drugs and treatments that will be given to hundreds of thousands of patients will be determined tomorrow.
The list will be submitted to the Minister of Health and submitted to the government for approval.
185 new labels for drugs and technologies with a total cost of about NIS 2 billion arrived at the final discussions.
The decision on which drugs will be given to patients is expected to be particularly difficult, because the committee's budget this year will be NIS 500 million and another NIS 50 million as a lump sum for new drugs and technologies.
This year, about 880 drugs and technologies were submitted to the basket committee, with a total cost of more than NIS 3 billion, and after 13 meetings, their number was reduced.
Among the drugs that came up for the final discussions are drugs for chronic diseases and cancer, for example the drugs Anharto, Picari and Abraxane for patients with various types of breast cancer, and the drug Linferza for pancreatic cancer patients with a mutation in the BRCA gene.
The drug Kitroda for patients with esophageal cancer, the drug Darlax as a first-line treatment for patients with multiple myeloma, genetic tests for rare mutations in the various populations: Ashkenazis, Ethiopians and Yemenis, including screening tests for all Druze residents of the Golan Heights, and screening tests for Bedouin in the Negev.
The committee discussed drugs for heart disease, including the drug Forsiga for the treatment of patients with heart failure that received the highest possible A9 rating.
Treatments for schizophrenia patients and treatment for generalized anxiety disorder will also be discussed.
For the final discussion, drugs for ADHD came up - treatment with the drug Ritalin for adults in the first line and with Atomic Vivience drugs for children who did not respond to other treatments (Ritalin or Attent);
Fostinor, the day after, for the treatment of victims of sexual assault or for the prevention of emergency pregnancies among young women aged 20 and under;
And a new hormonal treatment called Algolix for women suffering from endometriosis.
There have also been lively discussions about expanding mammography tests for early detection of breast cancer in women aged 45 to 49 once every two years.
The basket committee wants to make a unique and broad move this year regarding two diseases - diabetes and epilepsy - and will try to introduce a "basket" of treatments for them, which will include an introduction of the administration of advanced drugs.
As stated, the budget of the drug basket committee exceptionally includes a one-time sum of NIS 50 million this year.
In addition, due to the delay in the decisions of the basket committee, a situation has arisen in which there is a one-time budget for the months of January and February of this year.
Thus, members of the basket committee are expected to have a lump sum of about NIS 130 million.
This is an amount that will not be added to the basket base and therefore cannot be used to introduce medications that patients need to receive year after year.
Israel Today has learned that this year the committee is considering using the lump sum for the establishment of lung rehabilitation units.
This year, the basket committee discussed the possibility of expanding lung rehabilitation for patients with three lung diseases, but during the discussions it emerged that there are not enough institutes in Israel that can provide the treatments to the patient group, which is estimated at 7,600 people.
One of the options being considered is to allocate the one-time budget this year to invest in opening pulmonary rehabilitation units.
Liat Lapid from Ramat Gan, the mother of 5-and-a-half-year-old Almog, who suffers from Derva syndrome, is eagerly awaiting the committee's decision this week.
"Sandalwood suffers from a rare syndrome that causes severe, complex and very dangerous seizures," she says. This is ours for treating seizures. "
Rotem Farber (22) from Ahuzat Barak, a B-type hemophilia patient, is also waiting and says that "B-type hemophilia is a disease that causes a lot of unexpected bleeding due to a lack of a gene that coagulates the blood. Any bleeding for me is life threatening. There is only one drug that can stop completely "The bleeding - Adelion, with whom I can lead a normal life like all my peers. I am full of hope that the drug will be approved and give me and those suffering from the disease a life with less danger and anxiety and more sanity."
