– Saxenda meant everything. If I hadn’t taken it, it wouldn’t have worked. It helped me because I didn’t have to go hungry all the time, says Monica Stava from Kopervik. For a year, she used the slimming drug Saxenda, which she got on a blue prescription. Stava lost 32 kilograms using the medicine. Saxenda is a widely used slimming medicine in Norway. Last year, over 30,000 received the medicine on a blue prescription, according to Dagens Medisin. Among them Stava. But from 1 February this year, this will be practically impossible. This photo is from when news met Monica Stava in 2021. You can see a more recent photo of Monica further down in the case. Photo: Håkon Mannsåker / news Does not meet criteria The Swedish Medicines Agency has recently carried out a method assessment of the slimming agent Wegovy, a preparation they equate with Saxenda. The conclusion of the assessment was that Wegovy is not cost-effective, and thus does not meet the priority criteria. – Saxenda is a drug that works in the same way as Wegovy, but has significantly less effect, and the price is just as high, writes department director at the Norwegian Directorate of Health, Steinar Mathisen, in an email to news. Steinar Mathisen is department director in the Norwegian Directorate of Health. Photo: Tiril Mettesdatter Solvang / news For medicines on a blue prescription, it is a prerequisite that the priority criteria are met. The Storting has decided that these are the criteria that should be the basis for public funding of pharmaceuticals. – We will therefore stop covering Saxenda on blue prescription for new patients from 1 February. – A betrayal Mari-Mette Graff is head of the National Association for Obesity (LFO). She reacts strongly to the decision. – I think that it is a big betrayal of thousands of patients. Well over 10,000 patients lose overnight the right and the opportunity to apply for Saxenda for individual reimbursement, she says. According to Graff, the prerequisite for receiving Saxenda is that other medicines have not worked. – This means that the medicine that was the entry criterion is the only option left. But it hasn’t worked. She has received several phone calls from frustrated patients after the news broke. On a blue prescription, the deductible for Saxenda was NOK 173 a month. If you, as a new patient, want to use Saxenda, it costs NOK 3,000 a month. Mari-Mette Graff of the National Association for Obesity believes the decision is a betrayal. Photo: Maria Langaard – People don’t know what to do with the poor. They can’t afford it from before, with increased electricity prices, food prices and fuel prices. Graff believes that the decision deprives people of a real opportunity for better health and a better life. – People fear the economy, but also the health problems that arise if the weight increases. This increases the risk of heart attack, diabetes and cancer. They also fear that they will not be able to stay in the job to which they have returned. – People should get help Monica Stava tells news that she thinks the decision is sad. – Obesity is a disease that people should get help with. It is very sad that it is going out of the blue prescription scheme. If you go up and down five kilos all the way, as many of us overweight people have done all our lives, you won’t get the help you need to get started. Monica Stava in the summer of 2022. She says the slimming medicine meant everything to her when she had to lose weight. Photo: Privat She says the medicine is life-changing for people with obesity. Only patients with a BMI of over 50 (very severe obesity), and who also have serious weight-related additional diseases, can be considered for a blue prescription. Can use blue prescription for one year Steinar Mathisen in the Directorate of Health understands that the decision may upset patients who use, or want to use, Saxenda. – But the prerequisites for being able to cover Saxenda on a blue prescription are no longer present. The price is not in a reasonable relation to the benefit, it is too expensive. If the conditions should change, we will of course reconsider the decision, he writes to news. He also points out that it is only blue prescription coverage for new patients that will be stopped on 1 February. Those who are currently undergoing treatment can continue until the one-year decision from Helfo expires. – We will still cover two other slimming drugs on blue prescription for the same patient group. There are also non-medicinal measures for this patient group, so they are not without treatment options. – Forskjells-Norge Bård Eirik Kulseng is professor of clinical and molecular medicine at NTNU. He points out that obesity starts processes that lead to more complications and diseases. – When adipose tissue settles in places on the body where it should not be, diseases can occur in the adipose tissue. It can lead to diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease and many other complications. Not least, having a large body is a psychological burden for many. He says it is recognized that obesity is a chronic disease, and that all chronic diseases must be treated with drugs and follow-up. – The consequences of this decision are a Norway with a difference. Those who cannot pay for the medicine will have complications and probably a shorter and worse life, says Kulseng. Kulseng states to Dagens Medisin that he has given lectures for Novo Nordisk, which markets Saxenda and Wegovy.
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Can no longer get the popular slimming medicine Saxenda on a blue prescription – news Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio
