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ERIC 2024 | The main barriers to treatment access for patients with CLL
Natacha Bolaños, Lymphoma Coalition Europe, Madrid, Spain, discusses the main barriers to treatment access for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). She mentions government policy, the cost of treatment, and the need to update clinical practice guidelines as barriers to treatment access. This interview took place at the 2024 European Research Initiative on CLL (ERIC) Meeting in Barcelona, Spain.
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Transcript
Well, I would say that government policies are one of them. The way treatments are, the assessment for the treatments to have in those countries that have reimbursement as part of the healthcare system structure. Decisions don’t always reflect the benefit of the treatments. We still rely very much in overall survival. We still rely very much in clinical outcomes, quality of life outcomes are not yet there, well integrated, but also the high prices...
Well, I would say that government policies are one of them. The way treatments are, the assessment for the treatments to have in those countries that have reimbursement as part of the healthcare system structure. Decisions don’t always reflect the benefit of the treatments. We still rely very much in overall survival. We still rely very much in clinical outcomes, quality of life outcomes are not yet there, well integrated, but also the high prices. I mean, affordability of treatments is for sure one of the first barriers, and this goes beyond what we can capture in our Global Patient Survey, because this is about exploring how it looks, the financial implications of the adoption of new treatments, but it’s not only that. It’s also the need to update clinical practice guidelines in many places, you know, when you have better treatments available, but you haven’t given the standard of care category to those treatments, that’s a significant barrier for those treatments to really reach the patients. And it will rely, you know, on the physician’s decision, of course, the availability at country level, at hospital level. For instance, here in Spain, even a therapy that is reimbursed, you can find it available in some hospitals and in other hospitals is less available. So that probably you heard before that your postal code will determine what treatments you may access. And that’s true. So it’s the postal code, it’s the country, it’s the region. But of course, we need to evaluate the health expenditures, the prices of the medicines in balance with what they bring. And there are interesting movements around the world. Just to stress one, the Medicines Patent Pool is trying to negotiate, you know, like, bringing medicines that have been proven to bring extraordinary benefits for the patients to be available in low and middle income countries with a strategy that allows all parties to cover their needs. And that’s interesting, but we will have for another session for that.
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