New HIV Drug Saves NOK 65M

Medicine.Photo: Gorm Kallestad / SCANPIX
September 1, 2018, Sykenhusinnkjøp (Norway’s national hospital procurement: HF) will promote a scheme structured to offer Norway’s HIV patients a less expensive course of medicine to treat their affliction.

 

Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) reports that a potential of NOK 65M could be saved by using the cheaper HIV drugs. However, there are critics of the new HIV drug treatment scheme among Norway’s health care professionals.

PATIENTS AT RISK
Nurse Ingrid Slørdal of St. Olavs nursing department at Trondheim, who’s been working professionally for over 25 years with patients who suffer from HIV, worries that September’s Sykenhusinnkjøp HIV medicine scheme will put patients at risk.

Speaking with NRK of HF’s proposed September change to HIV medicines, Nurse Slørdal gave her concern of the new HIV drug’s possible side-effects upon HIV patients who are already receiving an active course of prescribed treatment.

DRUG INTERACTIONS
Nurse Slørdal also notes that HF’s new HIV drug requires a different dosage than what patients are currently taking and thus may lead to improper dosing. Further, the new HF HIV drug carries dietary concerns that bring her added consternation.

“With this new HIV medicine, many people need to take more daily tablets, as compared to only taking one pill daily. The new medicines clearly express a number of side-effects and carry an increased risk of dangerous interactions with other medicines,” said Slørdal.

Established 2015, Sykenhusinnkjøp (HF) is a public, non-profit GPO owned by the four Norwegian regional health authorities; tasked with medical procurement for the public hospital sector at the national, regional and local level.

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today