First in class medicine funded

With Australian hospitals under unprecedented strain, medical experts say Federal Government funding for a first-of-its-kind treatment for worsening heart failure could not have come soon enough.

A medicine known as Verquvo (vericiguat) will become available through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) for Australians with a common form of chronic heart failure, who have recently required emergency medical attention (often hospitalisation) for their worsening condition.

It will be used in addition to standard of care treatments. From 1 December, an estimated 35,000 eligible patients will pay just $6.80 (on concession) or $42.50 (general patients) each month for Verquvo.

Without a PBS subsidy, the medicine would cost more than $1,850 each year.

Verquvo treats worsening cases of what is known as heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, which 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. Verquvo works to relax and widen blood vessels in the heart, making it easier for the heart to pump more oxygenated blood around the body.

Professor Andrew Sindone, a leading cardiologist and heart failure expert from Sydney who was involved in clinical trials of Verquvo, welcomed the subsidy for the medicine, noting that each day 179 Australians are hospitalised due to heart failure.

“With each heart failure hospitalisation, a person’s risk of dying increases by 30 per cent,” he said.

“Heart failure is very serious and very common. One-in-four people die within a year of being diagnosed with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction.”

Professor Sindone explained that while the term ‘heart failure‘ may sound as though the heart suddenly fails and stops beating, it is generally a chronic condition where the heart becomes progressively weak and fails to work as well as it should.

Over time, patients with heart failure become short of breath, fatigued, experience swollen ankles, and everyday activities like dressing or walking to the mail box become an ordeal. Those whose condition is worsening are at high risk of requiring hospitalisation or even death.

“When the body is no longer able to compensate for the weakened heart, the condition worsens and patients can find themselves in a cycle of being hospitalised time and time again,“ Professor Sindone said.

“The reality is that after hospitalisation, a patient’s heart is never the same again and their condition continues to progress. One-in-five will be back in hospital within a month, and most will be re-hospitalised within 12 months.

“By this stage, heart failure has a huge impact on the life of the patient, their family and also on our hospital and healthcare system.”

Ashraf Al-Ouf, CEO of the Bayer Group in Australia and New Zealand, commended the Albanese Government for its commitment to invest in innovative medicines for heart failure.

“The downward spiral of heart failure is one of the greatest public health challenges facing our ageing population,” Mr Al-Ouf said.

“Affordable access to Verquvo will come as good news for Australians with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction who face the high risk of repeat hospitalisation or losing their lives to this insidious disease. Bayer is proud to remain at the forefront of scientific advances in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases.”