A drug to prevent obesity, vaccination for babies and cancer treatments - these are some of the drugs that will be at the center of the Basket Committee's deliberations this year.
The Medicines Basket Committee in 2021 | GPO
The Ministry of Health has finished formulating a preliminary list of 435 drugs and 39 technologies that will be submitted to the basket this year. Of the hundreds of drugs, only a few dozen will be rated by the public committee for expanding the basket of drugs, which will be given to patients free of charge starting in 2024. According to estimates, the budget for the basket of medicines this year is expected to reach a record NIS 750 million, following coalition agreements led by Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri.
On Thursday, lists of drugs and technologies were submitted to the rankings of professional associations that will recommend the most important treatments for the patients they treat. Later, ahead of the High Holidays, the Medicines Basket Committee is expected to be appointed and its discussions will begin.
The Tojao. Also available in the basket of medicines // Tujao. Also available in the basket of medicines,
Among the treatments submitted to the basket this year are: an innovative glucose meter for diabetics and an "artificial pancreas" for type 1 diabetics, full funding for transporting children with cancer for treatments, a pacemaker for drug-resistant depression and drug-resistant epilepsy.
In addition, the expansion of eligibility for eyeglasses for children up to age 10 will be transferred to the rating (funding for eyeglasses for children up to age 7 is currently entering the basket), funding general anesthesia for dental treatments over the age of 5 for surgical extraction or surgical treatment of cysts.
Among the drugs submitted to the basket are Tischild - an innovative drug that delays the onset of type 1 diabetes for children, Enhertu - for metastatic breast cancer patients with low expression of HER2 and also for gastric cancer, Trudelvi - for triple negative breast cancer patients, Margaza - a new drug for metastatic HER2 breast cancer patients and Imfinzi - immunotherapy treatment for patients with biliary tract cancer,
Presentation of the Medicines Basket Committee // Archive photo: Oren Ben Hakon,
This year, the Bexero vaccine against meningitis, which failed to enter last year, was once again submitted to the basket of medicines. The submitted landscape vaccine is Bayfortus - a vaccine against RSV virus given for the first time to infants up to one year of age; and the Shingrix vaccine - for the prevention of shingles over the age of 18.
A number of treatments for migraine have also been submitted to the medication basket. New drugs for diabetes were introduced - Ozempic Rebelissos and Monjero, but not for the treatment of obesity.
A drug that is expected to attract a lot of attention in the discussions is Vigovi for slimming – the drug was submitted for patients after unsuccessful bariatric surgery or for patients with morbid obesity (BMI over 35 and background diseases).
Photo: Reuters (archive) // Cholesterol-lowering drugs,
Other treatments that will be discussed in the basket of medicines are cholesterol-lowering treatments, drugs for skin diseases atopic dermatitis, mifembri - a new treatment for women with endometriosis, Merivair - treatment for CMV bacteria that does not respond to other treatments intended for organ transplant recipients, and Teixero - treatment for patients with hereditary angioedema who suffer from one attack per month.
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