News
NHF adds five new active ingredients to drug list
Subsidies for Insulin Analogues up 300 per cent
Friday, November 26, 2010
THE National Health Fund (NHF) says it has added five new Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients that treat eight of the 15 chronic illnesses on the Individual Benefits Programme .
The new additions are deflazacort, lamotrigine, tramadol, zinc hyaluronate and diosmin.
Deflazacort is used for the treatment of Asthma and Arthritis and enjoys a NHF subsidy of $60.38 for each six-milligram tablet on the Calcort label.
Lamotrigine is used to treat epilepsy and major depression and tablets are available in strengths of 25 milligrams, 50 milligrams and 100 milligrams. The NHF subsidy for these tablets on the Lamictal and Lamotrigine-PMS labels is $10.66 for each 25-milligram tablet.
“The chewable tablets on the Lamictal label should be great news for treating the children enrolled for epilepsy with the NHF,” the NHF said.
Tramadol, which is now listed under arthritis and is an adjunct for breast and prostate cancer, is available as drops, long-acting tablets and capsules.
“The NHF subsidy is $36.40 for each 50-milligram capsule or tablet on the Adamon and Tramal labels. $650 is the subsidy for each 10-millilitre bottle of liquid also on the Adamon and Tramal labels,” NHF explained.
Zinc Hyaluronate, in the meantime, is used for the treatment of vascular disease and is an adjunct for diabetes. It is available in the form of a gel with a NHF subsidy of $847.60 for each 15-gramme tube on the Curiosin label.
Diosmin is now listed under Vascular Disease and has a NHF subsidy of $18.93 for each 300-milligram tablet on the Venex label.
Three new generic labels have also been added to the NHF Individual Benefits Programme. They are:
* Flunil (Fluoxetine) capsules, which are used for treating major depression with a subsidy of $18.78 for each 20-milligram capsule;
* Risperidone-PMS (Risperidone) also for the treatment of major depression and psychosis with a subsidy of $66.26 for each two-milligram tablet; and
* the third new label is Bical (Bicalutamide) tablet used for the treatment of prostate cancer and enjoys a subsidy of $568.03 for each 50-milligram tablet.
Meanwhile, the fund has also increased the subsidies for insulin analogues by 300 per cent.
“An insulin analogue is an altered form of insulin, which is manufactured using DNA technology to produce a pharmaceutical preparation that although different from conventional insulin is better able to control glycemic levels with a lower risk of hypoglycemia, in the diabetic,” the fund said..
“The active pharmaceutical ingredients benefiting from this increase are Insulin Glargine, Insulin Glulisine; Insulin Lispr; Insulin Lispro and Lispro Protamine; Insulin Aspart; Insulin Aspart and Aspart Protamine,” it added.
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NHF adds five new active ingredients to drug list
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