By MARTIN JOHNSTON health reporter
Pharmac will next month start buying an expensive medicine for up to 1500 severe osteoporosis sufferers, but the criteria are so strict many people at risk of breaking bones will not qualify.
Osteoporosis makes bones brittle and easier to break. Among New Zealanders aged over 50, it afflicts one in three women and one in eight men.
The drug alendronate, which has the brand name Fosamax, increases bone density and reduces the risk of major fractures.
Pharmac, the Government's drug-buying agency, says to get a full subsidy for the drug patients must have very low bone density and have had two bone fractures caused by the disease.
Doctors and the lobby group Osteoporosis New Zealand have welcomed the move as a first step but hope to see the criteria relaxed. Some 400 people pay up to $90 a month for Fosamax.
Ninety per cent of hip fractures in women aged 60-plus are due to osteoporosis. Nearly a third of them remain in hospital or a rest home for life and the same proportion die within a year.
Endocrinologist Dr Anna Fenton said the Pharmac ruling could create a "crazy situation" for frail elderly people with a single hip fracture. Because they had only one fracture they would not be eligible for the drug, even though they should have it.
The Pharmac general manager, Wayne McNee, said there were other fully-subsidised osteoporosis drugs, and the criteria were written to fund alendronate for those would benefit most. It would cost taxpayers about $1 million a year.
Osteoporosis New Zealand chairwoman and former cabinet minister Margaret Austin has a particular interest in the Pharmac decision - she is in plaster with a broken leg suffered on a family tramping trip near Arthur's Pass on January 2.
The 66-year-old osteoporosis sufferer said she decided five years ago against taking Fosamax, partly because she had stabilised on hormone replacement therapy but also because of the cost.
In the 10 years since she had been diagnosed, the bone density of her hips and back had increased significantly. In addition to the hormone therapy, she took a calcium supplement and had regular weight-bearing exercise.
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