Drugs face cost-effectiveness trial after study approves cholesterol busters

THE health service is spending €90 million a year on cholesterol-lowering drugs for non-medical card holders — but the good news is they represent value for money.

A major study found that the drugs, known as statins, pass the cost-effectiveness test when it comes to curing the patient without killing the taxpayer.

Now every newly available drug is to be put through a similar test before being subsidised under the Community Drugs Scheme, while many available under the scheme will be assessed.

The drugs in this latest test were measured against an international standard which states drugs should cost no more than €36,000 for every year of life gained from their use, and no more than €45,000 when improved quality of life is also factored in.

Various brands of statins available under the Community Drugs Scheme came in at between €17,900 to €33,800 for every year of life gained.

The study was carried out by the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics (NCP), which was set up eight years ago up by the Department of Health.

NCP director Dr Michael Barry said value-for-money tests would become as common as the evaluations used to ensure drugs are safe.

“As prescribers we have always thought of drugs in terms of their safety and efficacy so I suppose it may be difficult for some to think of putting a monetary value on the health outcome but this trend is growing right across Europe.”

Drugs that come under the NCP’s scrutiny fall under two broad categories: high-cost medication that will have a significant impact on health budgets and medication that is not inherently expensive but is used in such large quantities it accounts for a high percentage of spending.

Cholesterol-lowering drugs account for 10% of spending under the Community Drugs Scheme, which subsidises prescription bills for the two-thirds of the population ineligible for free medication.

Between 1985 and 2000, deaths from heart disease here almost halved in the 25-84 age group. Two out of five of the lives saved were attributed to improved treatments, including statins.