PHARMAC will be funding an innovative form of anti-blood clotting treating that will make significant changes to the way anticoagulation is managed in New Zealand.

The current blood stopping treatment is warfarin, which has too many risks for patients and requires close patient monitoring including regular blood tests. Some people have difficulties tolerating with warfarin and is also affected by types of food including broccoli.

Pharmacists are hoping that this new drug will be better tolerated by people and it is likely that more people will switch to dabigatran.

Dr. Moodie says: “This will mean that anticoagulation treatment will be far more convenient for patients and clinicians, and removes the need for testing which is a significant financial and administrative cost to DHBs and clinicians”.

Funding for dabigatran will be PHARMAC’s largest-value investment this year. It should cost up to $155 million over five years but the cost can be reduced through confidential rebates. There is an expected 30,000 to 40,000 people currently treated for atrial fibrillation using warfarin and they could potentially shift to dabigatran. However, people who are content taking warfairn are not being forced to swap.