12 MARCH 2009
Access widened for breast cancer medication
Media release from AstraZeneca
Access to the frequently prescribed breast cancer medicine, Arimidex (anastrozole), has been widened through changes to funding as of 1 February 2009.
Access to Arimidex was previously restricted to patients with advanced breast cancer and those patients intolerant or contraindicated to tamoxifen. The change to funding now means Arimidex is available, and fully subsidised, to all breast cancer patients for the first time in New Zealand.
Breast cancer patients will no longer require any Special Authority approvals or have to pay any part charges to gain access to this medication1, resulting in more patients being able to access this important treatment option.
Auckland Breast Surgeon, Dr Belinda Scott comments “It is important that our patients have equal access to drugs as they do overseas, especially ones that have been shown to be superior to what our standard treatment used to be.”
“It used to be that all hormone receptor positive post menopausal patients received tamoxifen for 5 years. Recently, data has shown that the aromatase inhibitors have a slightly better survival and local recurrence rate to tamoxifen. It is wonderful to have this fully funded and not have to worry about extra costs to the patients for these drugs.”
References
- New Zealand Pharmaceutical Schedule Update February 2009
- The ATAC Trialist Group - Effect of anastrozole and tamoxifen as adjuvant treatment for early-stage breast cancer; 100- month analysis of the ATAC trial. Lancet Oncol 2008; 9: 45-53
About Arimidex
Arimidex contains the active ingredient, anastrozole. Anastrozole belongs to a group of medicines called aromatase inhibitors and interferes with the action of aromatase, an enzyme which is involved in the production of oestrogens within the body. Oestrogens are female sex hormones that are known to be able to encourage growth of some types of breast cancer cells.
By preventing the production of oestrogens, Arimidex prevents the hormones from promoting the growth of breast cancers.
In New Zealand, Arimidex is indicated for:
- ·Treatment of early breast cancer in hormone receptor positive post-menopausal women
- ·Adjuvant treatment of early breast cancer in hormone receptor positive postmenopausal women who have received 2 to 3 years of adjuvant tamoxifen.
- ·Reduction in the incidence of contralateral breast cancers in post menopausal women receiving Arimidex as adjuvant treatment for early breast cancer
- ·Treatment of advanced breast cancer in post-menopausal women.
About AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca is a major international healthcare business engaged in research, development, manufacturing and marketing of prescription pharmaceuticals and supplier for healthcare services. AstraZeneca is one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies with healthcare sales of US$ 31.6 billion and is a leader in gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, neuroscience, respiratory, oncology and infection product sales. AstraZeneca is listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (Global) as well as the FTSE4Good Index. For more information, please visit www.astrazeneca.com
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