A chance meeting at an American Kidney Fund conference a few days ago alerted us to aHUS patients in Thailand.
So Thailand has become the 69th neighbour in aHUS Global Town.
This Global Town is an initiative of Global Action to put aHUS patients on the map of the world.
Thailand has licenced eculizumab for use with aHUS but there is still the affordability challenge to be met. This article by the Sutinee Soopairin group about the economics of access demonstrates how much of a challenge it is.
This is its conclusion.
Neither Ravulizumab nor Eculizumab is cost-effective for the treatment of aHUS under Thailand’s willingness to pay threshold. The budget impact is significantly influenced by high drug costs and the limited data on the incidence and prevalence of aHUS in Thailand, which can be addressed through managed entry agreements and a patient registry, respectively. The treatment duration also affects the budget impact, which can be optimized through clearly defined start and stop criteria guided by genetic testing results
Our old friend cost per QALY is at the heart of it
Thailand has a willingness to pay threshold of 160k Thai bahts,( $4.4 K ) and the results for eculizumab over an additional 10 years gained was 25.4 Million Thai bahts ( $735k) .
Not even close.
So more work is needed. But we do know there are least 25 aHUS patients in Thailand.
Welcome to them out 69th neighbour.
Article No: 829
