Adalimumab subsidised in Australia

The Age reports that adalimumab (marketed as Humira) will be listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme from next week. This means that Australian Crohn's patients will be able to purchase the drug for a nominal fee.

Previously, the drug's high cost would have kept it out of reach of many people. Although the government is now picking up the tab, there is a net economic benefit to Australia. More Crohn's patients will be able to remain productive members of the workforce instead of relying on disability pensions.

For a behind-the-scenes look at a similar decision I found it interesting to read an advisory note from the Western Australian Therapeutic Advisory Group indicating their economic reasons for recommending subsidising adalimumab.

32 genes for Crohn's - so far

New research featured in Nature Genetics [full article via subscription] has found many more genes which increase the likelihood of a person developing Crohn's. Each gene helps scientists understand the mechanism of Crohn's better, and offers the potential for new targets of therapies.

The Boston Globe reports further:

The genome research has helped produce a "fundamentally new concept" of Crohn's, said Dr. R. Balfour Sartor, chief medical adviser of the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America.

The idea, he said, is that in Crohn's disease, cells in the intestine have trouble using the weapons of the innate immune system - such as autophagy - to get rid of bacteria, so the immune system's second line of defense, big-gun T-cells, get called in, causing inflammation.

Reuters has more:

Significantly, three of the individual genes that have been implicated in Crohn's have previously been shown to influence risk of type 1 diabetes and asthma, suggesting a possible common genetic mechanism underlying these disorders.

As we come closer to identifying the cause of Crohn's we will have medications that attack the cause, rather than the symptoms, of the disease. The identification of related genes will no doubt play an important role in this.