Government subsidy boosts access to treatment for common form of heart failure
A medicine widely used by Australians with type 2 diabetes will now also be subsidised by the Federal Government to treat a potentially life-threatening heart condition where the heart muscle no longer pumps with sufficient force to push enough blood around the body.
From today, Jardiance® (empagliflozin 10mg) will be subsidised by the Federal Government through the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme (PBS) for Australians living with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction – a common form of heart failure where the heart’s ability to contract is significantly weakened – and whose symptoms may persist despite existing treatment.
With this form of heart failure affecting approximately 500,000 Australians, this new addition to the PBS is being welcomed by heart experts who warn that the rates and impacts of heart failure are increasing as Australia’s population gets older.
Professor Andrew Coats, Cardiologist from Melbourne and President of the Heart Failure Association says that the debilitating condition claims more than 60,000 Australian lives each year and is responsible for a revolving door of hospitalisations, many of which could be prevented.
“This is why access to new treatment options that work to counter the effects of a weakened heart muscle is so important,” he said.
Heart failure affects more than a million Australians – half of whom live with a form of the disease known as heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. One-in-four people die within a year of being diagnosed with this form of heart failure.
Professor Coats said that while Jardiance was already available on the PBS for the management of type 2 diabetes,it can now be used and is subsidised for the treatment of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, irrespective of whether or not a patient has type 2 diabetes.
Heart failure occurs when the heart is no longer able to pump a sufficient volume of blood around the body due to an injury or damage to the heart muscle. This can occur following a heart attack or other illness affecting the heart, or as a result of poorly controlled diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure or coronary artery disease.
