New Zealand declines Alexion's funding application for Solaris

New Zealand’s Pharmaceutical Management Agency PHARMAC is seeking feedback on a proposal to decline the application from USA-based drugmaker Alexion Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ALXN) for funding its drug Solaris (eculizumab) for the treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), a rare, acquired, potentially life-threatening disease of the blood.

This proposal to decline the funding application is consistent with the clinical advice the agency has received, which recommended that the application be declined because, although it is an effective treatment, it is extremely expensive. Sufferers from New Zealand in January 2013 called on the government's medicine buying agency to fund the purchase of eculizumab. New Zealand is the only country in the OECD not to fund the drug.

Not seen to be cost effective