Lung disease patients ‘devastated’ at refusal to fund breakthrough drug

Patients with severe lung disease who have been receiving a life-changing drug have pleaded for help as supply of the medication is to be cut off within weeks.

Twenty-one patients have been getting Respreeza from its manufacturers on compassionate grounds — some for as long as 10 years — after they participated in clinical trials of it before it was formally approved for use.

However, health chiefs here failed to agree a price for the drug with the US manufacturer, CSL Behring, and the company is to stop providing it for free from the end of this month.