Experimental treatment ‘drastically’ improves prospects for worst Covid patients

DutchNews, July 21, 2020

Illustration: Depositphotos.com 

An anti-inflammatory drug used in a Dutch hospital to treat the most seriously ill Covid-19 patients has been found to reduce the death rate by 65%. 

The Zuyderland Medisch Centrum in Geleen and Heerlen used corticosteroids, sometimes in combination with other medicines to suppress the immune system, to treat patients who developed cytokine storm syndrome (CSS). 

Around a quarter of Covid-19 patients who are admitted to hospital develop CSS, which occurs when the virus activates large numbers of white blood cells. 

Patients who were treated with an intensive course of glucocorticoids were 65% less likely to die and 71% less likely to need mechanical ventilation, according to the findings published on Tuesday in The Annals of Rheumatic Disease. 

At the beginning of the outbreak in March, 48% of Covid-19 patients being treated for CSS in the Limburg hospital died, but after doctors began using the steroid treatment the death rate fell to 16%. 

Patients were given the treatment for between five and seven days, in combination with the immunosuppressant drug tocilizumab if no improvement was seen by the second day.

Related Articles:

"Some Virus Truths for you to Consider", Streamed, US, Apr 14, 2020 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (>43.09 Min - Reference to the Global Coronavirus crisis and the Immune System) (Text version)

"...... The virus is not killing you.

The virus will often take someone, perhaps, who is weaker, to a level that is dangerous. With that danger, the doctors will put them into a hospital and give the best care that they know how to give. Some of the patients go into that which you call the ICU (Intensive Care Unit). Surrounded by ICU specialists and doctors and nurses who care about them and are doing their best to save their lives, these health care professionals watch their efforts fail. Instead of seeing that which is a normal response within an ICU protocol, or that which is normal for a virus of this kind, they observe something completely different.

They watch a dramatic and quick downturn, and, sometimes, an almost immediate death. They are mystified, since there shouldn’t be this scenario happening, and they’re scratching their heads and saying, “that should not have happened.”

Dear ones, they are correct. Indeed, it should not be that way, and so, there’s another component to this – there is something else happening. This is factual, dear ones, and you can ask the physicians on the front lines and the nurses who have watched and seen those who are put on the ventilators who seem to be recovering, and then they lose them.

There is something else going on, dear ones, and now I will tell you what it is – and it’s not sinister or esoteric. It’s just chemistry. What I tell you now, hopefully, will lead to an understanding, so that, in the future, this virus does not have to be the “killer flu.” It will only be “the flu.” I’m telling you now the potential of what will be discovered and, if you roll your eyes at this, talk to me in a few years and see if you are going to roll your eyes then.

Number One:

Dear ones, your immune system has never seen this. Most of you have a robust immune system, but for those who don’t, your system will overreact to the virus. You might say that the immune system is what is killing the Human Beings, not the virus. The virus will take the dysfunction of your body to a certain level, and then the immune system, which has never seen this before, will completely overreact and cause quick death.

Now, I just gave you a key: If your medical science could encapsulate that immune system so it will not overreact, this flu will never kill another Human. You absolutely know the flu season is coming back. However, it will simply be the flu and it won’t be a killer flu anymore, because you will have figured it out. I just gave you something to work on and to know, and, if you think I am wrong, simply ask those doctors in the ICU if they have seen this phenomenon. They will say, “Yes, and we know there’s something else. We wish we knew what it was.”

Concentrate not on the virus vaccine, but on the immune system. Figure out why this reaction is taking place and work the puzzle of the immune system, so that there is no devastating horror for so many and hurt for so many hearts. Inappropriate death, it is.

You have gone into a habit of looking for an outside cure to always come forward and give you protection. Realize, dear ones, that this is an “add on” to an already wonderful immune system that begs for help. What if you, someday, have no need for any vaccine, and instead, you become super-strong in your resistance? What if everything can be solved and cured by enhancing YOUR system instead of something from the outside? What if this strength comes from organic substances and enhanced support for your own system instead of going to a pill? This would be a new paradigm for mainstream health. ...."

"Corona 2", Reykjavik, Iceland, Mar, 2020 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (>3,12 Min - Reference to the Global Coronavirus crisis)

- Download Page -

"Corona 1", Reykjavik, Iceland, Mar, 2020 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - 

(>13.46 Min - Reference to the Global Coronavirus crisis)

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What the new coronavirus measures in the Netherlands mean for you

DutchNews, March 13, 2020 

Empty shelves in a Dutch supermarket. Photo: DutchNews.nl 

The Dutch government on Thursday announced new nationwide measures to try to contain the coronavirus epidemic in the Netherlands. Here’s what you need to know. 

Social contacts

• If you have a cold, a cough, sore throat or a fever stay home. Avoid contact with others. Only call your doctor if your symptoms get worse. 
• Gatherings of more than 100 people have been cancelled. This includes public places such as museums, concerts, theatres, professional and amateur sports events and matches. 
• Churches and mosques are also cancelling their services 
• There are currently no restrictions on visiting a cafe or restaurant, as long as you do not have any symptoms 
• Work from home if possible or stagger your working times. 
• Try to avoid close contact with the elderly and people with weakened immune systems. 
• In particular, elderly people and those with weakened immune systems are asked to avoid large gatherings and public transport. 
• Healthcare workers are being asked to stay home only if they have symptoms including a fever. They are also being asked not to travel abroad. 

Education

• Universities and hbo colleges have been requested to offer online lectures and the university and college associations have said they will stop all physical forms of education for the time being, including exams. 
• Children who have a cold, cough or fever should stay at home. 
• Primary schools, secondary schools, secondary vocational schools (MBO) and childcare centres will remain open as usual. This, the government says, is because children and young people are not high-risk groups and closing schools would have a major impact on society without contributing significantly to reducing the spread of coronavirus. 

The measures apply up to and including March 31. 

Hygiene 

The Dutch public health institute RIVM and World Health Organisation say everyone should follow these instructions to prevent infection: 

• Avoid shaking hands and physical contact 
• Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly with soap or alcohol rub 
• Sneeze into a tissue or  your elbow 
• Use paper tissues and dispose of them immediately 
• Stay away at least one metre away from people who are sneezing or coughing 
• Avoid touching your face with your hands, which may have picked up the virus 

The RIVM says face masks should only be worn by medical staff. Most of the paper masks used by the general public are worthless and offer a false sense of security, officials say. 

Coronavirus in the Netherlands, the questionsyou want answered 

Tests 

Tests for coronavirus can only be requested via the local health board or a hospital and it takes around 24 hours for the test results to come through. 

Testing is currently only being carried out on people who have worsening symptoms and have been in an at risk area or in contact with people who have coronavirus. 

The RIVM has an interactive map showing where corona infections are being confirmed. 

Can I still go on holiday? 

The Dutch foreign affairs ministry has up-to-date advice on foreign travel and has set up a red to green coding system for coronavirus. Currently China, Iran and Italy should be avoided for all but essential travel. The Dutch government website has more information in English. 

The US has imposed a travel ban on all incoming flights from the EU from Saturday. 

Official information sources in English 

Dutch public health institute RIVM 
Dutch government website 
The government has also published flyers in a variety of languages about the recommended hygiene measures.

Related Articles:

The Netherlands cancels big events, but won’t close schools in corona clampdown


"Kryon on Corona", Reykjavik, Iceland, Mar 13, 2020 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (>13.46 Min - Reference to the Global Coronavirus crisis) - New

In Gaza, 'American hospital' fuels suspicions

Yahoo – AFP, Adel Zaanoun with Joe Dyke in Jerusalem, December 4, 2019

Palestinian construction workers in October at the site of the future medical facility
next to the Erez Israel-Gaza crossing (AFP Photo/MAHMUD HAMS)

Erez (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Volunteers with a US Christian charity group pose for a selfie in front of tents and crates of equipment to build a contentious new field hospital on the Israel-Gaza border.

The facility, to be located right next to a crossing into Israel, has rare joint support from the Jewish state and Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas as part of an informal truce deal.

But its existence, and the way it has been advertised by the US non-government group running it, is fuelling suspicions and rumours among some Palestinians.

Nicknamed the "American hospital" by Palestinians, it is funded by the evangelical Friend Ships organisation based in the US state of Louisiana.

Pictures posted on the Christian group's Facebook page show young volunteers in dark t-shirts hammering pegs into the ground and erecting a row of tents.

The dusty 10-acre (four hectare) site is right next to the Erez Israel-Gaza crossing, making access possible from both sides -- though likely only with Israeli permission.

The charity website said the hospital would offer telemedicine for remote consultations with specialists worldwide. It could later include cancer care as well as less conventional offers, including treatments that involve horse-riding.

The medical camp would be staffed heavily by volunteers after they have received 12 weeks training, it said, urging Christians to sign up.

"We will offer services to the public four days a week," the website said -- promising that on their days off volunteers can also enjoy cultural experiences.

"For those who would like to tour, you will have the option of making your own arrangements to spend three days on your own, experiencing Israel."

A post on Facebook by the group said volunteers would learn about the region and "become part of what God is doing there today".

The organisation, which previously operated a tent hospital on the Israeli side of its disputed border with Syria, did not respond to a request for comment and AFP was not permitted to visit.

The timeline for opening was unclear.

COGAT, the Israeli body responsible for coordinating access to Gaza, said the hospital was "not connected to Israel".

'Not needed'

Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008.

Hamas does not recognise Israel's right to exist, while Israel's new defence minister, Naftali Bennett, has pledged a hard line.

Yet the hospital is indicative of a thawing after a longer-term truce was brokered this year by Qatar, the United Nations and others.

The facility has rare joint support from the Jewish state and Gaza's Islamist rulers 

Hamas as part of an informal truce deal (AFP Photo/MAHMUD HAMS)

Gaza, which has been blockaded by Israel for a decade, suffers crippling energy shortages and high poverty.

Its medical sector is overstretched, with hospitals chronically short of drugs and others goods, many of which are restricted by Israel.

If successful, the new tent hospital could provide an alternative for those in need, while its close proximity to Israel would assuage the Jewish state's fears over imports being syphoned off by Hamas.

Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas's deputy head in Gaza, told journalists in a recent briefing they would "evaluate the work of the hospital and its services to the public".

"If it is not the required level we will work to close it," he warned.

An official at the Hamas-run health ministry insisted they would oversee the facility, for which the first equipment was imported in September.

But multiple aid sources said there had been little coordination with the United Nations or the international humanitarian agencies which work in Gaza.

A humanitarian aid staffer who worked in Gaza pointed out the location was only a few minutes drive from two Palestinian hospitals inside the enclave.

"What Gaza needs is money to pay its medical staff and access to more equipment and drugs, not another basic hospital," he said.

Palestinian split

The initiative has met with fierce opposition from some quarters.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah movement, which is based in the West Bank and opposes Hamas, even alleged it would be an American "military base".

"Hamas is committing a crime against the Palestinian cause and against our people with this approval," Fatah said in a statement on the new hospital.

Multiple statements by Abbas's government have warned of "dubious intentions," suggesting, without citing evidence, that Washington was involved or that the facility was part of attempts by the US and Israel to weaken the Palestinian cause.

Abbas cut off talks with the United States in late 2017 and accuses President Donald Trump of trying to destroy Palestinian hopes of statehood.

Hamas seized Gaza from Abbas's forces in a 2007 near civil war, but the international community has continued to call for his internationally recognised Palestinian Authority (PA) to return to power there.

Mukhaimer Abu Saada, a politics professor in Gaza, said for Hamas the hospital was a tangible result of the truce and could allow patients who are refused Israeli travel permits to get treatment.

But Abbas, he said, fears that the United States and Israel are seeking to de facto recognise Hamas' rule in Gaza.

"The PA is not part of the deal and worries that Hamas is competing with them to represent the Palestinian people," Abu Saada said.

Medical industry again increases sponsorship of doctors, hospitals

Dutchnews, July 29, 2019

Pharmaceutical companies and medical aids makers have again handed over more ‘sponsorship’ money to Dutch healthcare institutions and patients organisations, according to new figures from a register set up to monitor transparency in the sector. 

In total, the industry paid €80m to healthcare groups, a rise of 12% on 2017, the register said on Tuesday. Some 152 companies signed the register, which was set up seven years ago. 

Some €71m of the money went to healthcare institutions such as hospitals and was largely spent on meetings and conferences. 

In total, nearly 3,700 healthcare professionals – mainly medical specialists – were given industry money, largely for presentations or membership of advisory boards. 

Companies are not required by law to include payments in the register. Nor does the register include industry funding for research. However, according to EU rules, drugs firms are required to state by law how much research funding they give on a country by country basis.

Teenager can walk again thanks to Dutch 3D printed spinal implant

DutchNews, July 24, 2019

Photo: Depositphotos.com

A 16-year-old boy and a woman in her 60s are able to walk and move freely thanks to a 3D printed implant developed by Utrecht’s UMC teaching hospital. 

The treatment, which involves a made-to-measure titanium implant developed by a team of engineers, surgeons and scientists, was the subject of a paper in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet earlier this week. 

‘We now have a blueprint for other hospitals who want to offer the treatment,’ physician and 3D print expert Koen Willemsen said. 

For Rick Duwel, who has neurofibromatosis which causes his spine to become unstable, the operation was an intervention of last resort. His spine collapsed and the implant was the only way complete paralysis could be avoided in the long run.

‘What we came up with was a 3D printed titanium spine support which was tested extensively. We also had to find out about the rules and regulations surrounding these implants. The whole process took six months,’ Willemsen said. 

Legal obstacles often stop hospitals from using the technique, but now that most of the problems have been tackled and a blueprint has been developed it could become more common, said Willemsen. 

At the moment the treatment is geared to people with rare diseases such as neurofibromatosis and the very rare vanishing bone disease which the woman is suffering from. However, Willemsen does not rule out that in future 3D printed implants will become the option of choice for a great range of diseases. 

Duwel said he is proud to be the first person to be fitted with a 3D printed titanium implant, although he told the Volkskrant, ‘Somersaults are out of the question.’

Minister to ‘talk to Novartis’ after five-fold cancer drug price hike

DutchNews, January 10, 2019 - By Robin Pascoe

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Health minister Bruno Bruins is planning to talk to Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Novartis this week about the five-fold hike in the price of a drug to treat a rare form of cancer. 

Bruins told a television talk show on Wednesday evening that the decision to put up the price of a year’s supply to €90,000 is an ‘example of how not to behave’. ‘These are outrageous sums,’ Bruins said. ‘And I am not done with this yet.’ 

The drug, lutetium-octreotaat, was developed in the mid 1980s by researchers at Rotterdam’s Erasmus Medical Centre but the company which makes it is now owned by Novartis following a string of takeovers. 

Novartis then registered the drug as an orphan treatment with the European patent office, according to research by Dutch medical journal Nederlands Tijdschrift voorGeneeskunde. 

Bruins told the Jinek talk show that the EU rules on orphan drugs are meant to stimulate the development of new medicines and says he plans to raise this abuse of the system within Europe. 

‘This expensive medicine is covered in the basic health insurance package so patients will continue to be treated,’ he said. ‘But we are having to deal with so many other really expensive drugs that we really do have to tackle this.’ 

Several Dutch hospitals make their own version of lutetium-octreotaat at a cost of some €4,000 per drip. A full treatment session comprises four drips. Apple chief Steve Jobs was among the patients who were treated using the medicine in Rotterdam. 

Meeting

A spokeswoman for Novartis told DutchNews.nl that the company is ‘willing to discusses this topic with all stakeholders including the government’. 

The company said the until its approval by the European Medicines Agency, the drug, formally known as Lutathera, ‘was only available as an experimental treatment at centers with the facilities and capabilities to manage the compounding of a radioactive product.’ 

The drug has now undergone major clinical trials and is available as a targeted therapy to patients in Europe and the US, Novartis said. 

After its approval in 2018, ‘the price of Lutathera was carefully considered and based on the relative benefit it provides to patients’, the company said. 

Price

Last year, the Dutch healthcare institute Zorginstituut Nederland said insurers should stop paying for expensive drugs if pharmaceutical companies continue to refuse to say how they arrive at the price.

And in November, Amsterdam’s AMC teaching hospital was given the green light by health ministry inspectors to make its own version of a licenced drug to treat a rare metabolic disorder. 

The hospital began making its own version of the drug after manufacturer Leadiant ramped up the price by around 500% to €200,000 per patient per year. 

The drug has been available since the 1970s but Leadiant only registered it as an orphan medicine with the European medicines agency in 2017. 

Orphan status, given to drugs which are used to treat very specific and rare illnesses, means a drug cannot be copied commercially for a 10-year period.

Related Article:

Dutch hospital can make cheaper version of drug, health inspector say

Irish woman who fought Dutch hospital secrecy dies of cancer

DutchNews, January 1, 2019

Adrienne Cullen, the Irish woman who campaigned for transparency in hospital care after she was left with terminal cervical cancer thanks to a Dutch medical error has died at the age of 58. 

Her husband Peter Cluskey issued a statement on Twitter saying that his wife had been ‘appallingly treated’ and that this had made her a ‘formidable warrior’. 

@AdrienneCullen died at the Netherlands Cancer Institute @hetAVL at 10.15 am today. To those who have been so loyal and generous - particularly @UCC and @osheaucc for her honorary doctorate - a million thanks. She was appallingly treated +and it made her a formidable warrior. RIP pic.twitter.com/Fv0vKiMtMI

— Peter Cluskey (@petercluskey) December 31, 2018

Adrienne first underwent tests in the Netherlands in 2011 but it was not until two years later that a review of old pathology results showed that she had cancer. By 2015 her cancer had spread and, because of the delays, was classed terminal. 

She was offered €500,000 compensation by Utrecht’s UMCU teaching hospital on condition she sign a gagging order, which she refused to do, and began campaigning for more transparency about medical errors. 

The hospital eventually settled with Adrienne and her husband for €545,000, the highest medical negligence award ever made in the Netherlands. 

Lecture

In April this year, she was able to give a lecture at the hospital calling for the victims of medical errors to be heard, alongside the doctor responsible for her misdiagnosis. An Adrienne Cullen lecture is now part of the university calendar. 

Early in December she was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Cork. Her book about her experiences ‘Deny, Dismiss, Dehumanize : What Happened When I went to Hospital’ will be published shortly. Adrienne’s impact was such in the Netherlands that public broadcaster NOS and the NRC newspaper are among the media outlets to carry an obituary.

'Staying silent was not an Option for Adrienne Cullen' 1960-2018
NRC obituary by Frederiek Weeda:https://t.co/Nq7dulOvbE

— Peter Cluskey (@petercluskey) December 31, 2018

Drugs firms boost spending on hospital and specialist sponsorship

DutchNews, July 17, 2018

Drugs firms are spending more on sponsorship

Pharmaceutical companies and medical aids makers have again handed over more ‘sponsorship’ money to Dutch healthcare institutions and patients organisations, according to new figures from a register set up to monitor transparency in the sector. 

In total, the industry paid €71.5m to healthcare groups, a rise of 26% on 2016, the register said on Tuesday. The pharmaceuticals industry accounted for the bulk of the money – €59.1m, a rise of 6% on the previous year. 

Some 85% of the money went to healthcare institutions such as hospitals and was largely spent on meetings and conferences. 

In total, nearly 4,000 healthcare professionals – mainly medical specialists – were given industry money, largely for presentations or membership of advisory boards. 

Companies are not required by law to include payments in the register, which was established six years ago. 

Nor does the register include industry funding for research. However, according to EU rules, drugs firms are required to state by law how much research funding they give on a country by country basis. 

Frederik Schutte of the medicine advertising code agency SCG told the Volkskrant that based on the lists provided by 35 companies, that figure is likely to be around €100m in the Netherlands.

Revenge of a forgotten medical 'genius'

Yahoo – AFP, Philippe SCHWAB,  June 30, 2018

With his 200th birthday approaching, the life-saving work of Hungarian obstetrician
Ignaz Semmelweis is finally getting its due (AFP Photo/ALEX HALADA)

Vienna (AFP) - It's not an uncommon fate for a pioneering scientist: languishing unrecognised in his time before dying in obscurity. But as his 200th birthday approaches, the life-saving work of a Hungarian obstetrician is finally getting its due.

Decades before Louis Pasteur won widespread acceptance for the germ theory of disease, Ignac Semmelweis was battling his peers to accept what is today medical orthodoxy -- doctors should thoroughly disinfect their hands before treating patients.

Born on July 1 1818, Semmelweis joined the obstetrics department of Vienna's general hospital in 1846 and was immediately struck by the extremely high maternal mortality rate in the wing where student doctors trained: it stood at more than 10 percent, at times going up to almost 40 percent.

By contrast, in the neighbouring wing where midwives trained, the rate stayed under the contemporary average of three percent.

"This disparity troubled Semmelweis enormously and he started a thorough epidemiological study," says Bernhard Kuenburg, president of Vienna's Semmelweis Foundation.

In 1847, the penny dropped when a colleague died of septicaemia after carrying out an autopsy: Semmelweis surmised that dead bodies must hold invisible but potentially deadly "particles".

"At the time, medical students went directly from an autopsy to assist with a labour without disinfecting their hands," Kuenburg told AFP.

With soap not being enough to fix the problem, Semmelweis imposed a more rigorous regime of hand-washing for five minutes with a harsh chlorinated lime solution.

With this "very simple method" Semmelweis slashed the mortality rate "to almost zero," Kuenburg says.

A commemorative plaque for pioneering scientist Ignaz Semmelweis at Vienna's 

general hospital where he battled his peers to accept today's medical orthodoxy -- 

doctors should thoroughly disinfect their hands before treating patients (AFP 

Photo/ALEX HALADA)

Fiery disposition

But instead of plaudits, Semmelweis suffered the wrath of the grandees of Vienna's medical fraternity and in 1849 his contract was not renewed.

"The self-estimation of the doctors was very high back at this time. Of course they were offended because they didn't like the idea that they were guilty of causing this terrible mortality rate," Kuenburg says.

Moreover, it would still be a quarter of a century before Pasteur was finally able to prove the existence of "microbes".

Other doctors demanded evidence, according to Kuenburg.

"They said: 'No, Mr Semmelweis cannot be right. He cannot show us the pathogens so something is fishy with this theory.'"

And Semmelweis's fiery disposition and lack of tact didn't help -- he did not shrink from calling colleagues "killers".

Towards the end of his life his mental health deteriorated and he died in an asylum in 1865, at the age of 47.

100 deaths a day in the EU

At the end of the 19th Century Semmelweis's reputation began to be rehabilitated after the discoveries of Pasteur, Robert Koch and Alexandre Yersin bore out his theories.

In 1924 the French writer Louis-Ferdinand Celine dedicated a medical thesis to him and hailed him as a "genius".

Today he is considered the father of modern theories of hospital hygiene and sterilisation.

Bernhard Kuenburg, president of the Semmelweis Foundation, demonstrates the use 

of disinfectants to wash hands -- medical orthodoxy today (AFP Photo/ALEX HALADA)

But even though disinfecting hands is accepted as common sense for medical personnel, the practice still isn't as systematic as it should be, according to Professor Didier Pittet, infection control expert at the World Health Organization (WHO).

Worldwide, the practice is only adhered to "in 50 percent of cases on average, even though it can prevent 50 to 70 percent of hospital infections," he told AFP.

Some 3.2 million people are affected annually by hospital-acquired infections within the EU, resulting in 100 deaths every day.

Pittet estimates the global figure for such deaths to be between five and eight million year Hungary.

"Disinfecting the hands with an alcohol solution is cheap and simple and has an immediate impact on infection rates," including for multi-resistant organisms, Pittet says.

But despite this, "it's an act which isn't taken seriously enough, notably by doctors themselves" Pittet says, adding that some seem to think worrying about sterilising their hands is somehow beneath them.

However, the WHO's "Clean Care is Safer Care" campaign, launched together with 19,000 hospitals worldwide in order to raise awareness of the importance of hand sterilisation, is starting to pay off.

Following the lead of a programme piloted by Pittet in Swiss hospitals in the 1990s, rates of hand disinfection in Australia and certain Asian healthcare facilities are at almost 85 percent.

"Twenty years ago the rate of hand disinfection was only around 20 percent. Now it's becoming one of the sexiest topics in medical literature," says Pittet.

"In a way, it's Semmelweis's revenge."

It's not an uncommon fate for a pioneering scientist: languishing unrecognised in his time before dying in obscurity. But as his 200th birthday approaches, the life-saving work of a Hungarian obstetrician is finally getting its due https://t.co/9E6wga9N1t

— AFP news agency (@AFP) June 30, 2018

Dutch cancer hospital makes own version of expensive drug after finding new application

DutchNews, May 11, 2018

Photo: Depositphotos.com 

Dutch cancer hospital Antoni van Leeuwenhoek is making its own version of an expensive cancer medicine after finding that the drug helps a new group of patients. 

Vorinostat is used to treat a rare form of lymphoma but researchers at the Amsterdam hospital have found it is also effective on patients with melanoma which is resistant to standard treatments. 

The drug, which is not available for use in the Netherlands, costs upward of $100 per capsule but can be produced by the hospital pharmacy for €1.50. This is legal as long as the drug is used for clinical trials based on a new application for the drug, the hospital says. 

Merck, which makes Vorinostat, has only registered it for the treatment of lymphoma. 

A spokesman for the drugs company told the Volkskrant that ‘this medicine is still on the market but we no longer promote it or carry out any research using it.’ 

‘If this treatment works well for patients in our follow-up study, we will be able to treat a lot of people for little money,’ doctor Jan Schellens said on the hospital website. 

The initial study focused on six patients but this will now be expanded. Between 200 and 300 people develop resistant melanoma every year in the Netherlands. 

Licenced drugs

This is not the first time a Dutch hospital has opted to reproduce a licenced drug. In April, Amsterdam’s AMC teaching hospital said it is to start making its own version of medicine to treat a rare metabolic disorder because the medicine is no longer covered by health insurance after the price shot up. 

That drug, chenodeoxycholic acid or CDCA is produced by Italian pharmaceuticals company Leadiant. On April 1, the company ramped up the price by around 500% so it now costs some €200,000 per patient per year. The hospital can produce the drug for €25,000.

Dutch hospital challenges big pharma by making own version of very pricey drug

DutchNews, April 5, 2018

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Amsterdam’s AMC teaching hospital is to start making its own version of a licenced drug to treat a rare metabolic disorder because the medicine is no longer covered by health insurance after the price shot up. 

The drug, chenodeoxycholic acid or CDCA is produced by Italian pharmaceuticals company Leadiant. On April 1, the company ramped up the price by around 500% so it now costs some €200,000 per patient per year. The hospital can produce the drug for €25,000. 

Hospital pharmacies make their own medicines more often but this case is unusual because of the financial considerations. The hospital is offering ‘a social and economically-responsible alternative to a registered medicine which is so expensive that it is inaccessible to patients,’ the AMC said. 

Just 60 patients in the Netherlands suffer from the disease CTX which the drug is used to treat. 

The drug has been available since the 1970s but Leadiant only registered it as an orphan medicine with the European medicines agency last year. Orphan status, given to drugs which are used to treat very specific and rare illnesses, means a drug cannot be copied for a 10-year period. 

Prescription 

There is a loophole, however:  a pharmacist can make the drug for their own patients. And even though the AMC only has two, ‘anyone can register at our pharmacy with a doctor’s prescription,’ AMC professor Carla Hollak told the NRC. 

The measure is being supported by health insurance companies. Health minister Bruno Bruins told RTL news that he preferred the use of registered medicines because of the tough procedures they have gone through. Nevertheless, he said, it is unacceptable that companies raise the price ‘to make fat profits’. 

Blackmail 

The Dutch healthcare institute Zorginstituut Nederland said in February insurers should stop paying for expensive drugs if pharmaceutical companies continue to refuse to say how they arrive at the price. 

The institute, which assesses the efficacy of new drugs and advises the government on whether they should be included in the basic healthcare policy, says the drugs companies are effectively blackmailing officials by refusing to be transparent about their prices. 

DutchNews.nl has asked Leadiant for comment on the AMC action and the drug price hike.

Related Article:

Drug companies are blackmailing us with expensive drugs: healthcare chief