US Medicare to test paying for flu antivirals

The US government has announced that Medicare will test the idea of paying for antiviral drugs -- including Biota and GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza -- for some patients who catch influenza.

The demonstration project will allow patients who are not enrolled for drug coverage to get help in paying for four drugs that can treat influenza -- Roche's Tamiflu, also known as oseltamivir; zanamivir, sold by GlaxoSmithKline under the brand name Relenza; and the older drugs amantadine and rimantadine.

Relenza was developed by Melbourne company Biota in collaboration with CSIRO and Monash University's Victorian College of Pharmacy. Biota is currently seeking damages from its marketing partner GSK in the Victorian Supreme Court for loss of revenue from royalties on Relenza. Biota is claiming that GSK had failed to promote and support Relenza in the five years since the drug was launched.

"There are prescription drugs that have been proven to prevent the flu and its serious complications, and Medicare is taking steps to make these drugs more affordable," said Dr Mark McClellan, administrator of the Centres for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

"This demonstration program will provide useful evidence on how prescription drug coverage affects the health and costs for Medicare beneficiaries ahead of the drug benefit in 2006."

Each Medicare patient can, through the end of May, get up to two prescriptions filled during the demonstration period.

Medicare, funded jointly by the federal government and each state, wants to find out if it is worth paying for these drugs.

When Medicare pays for a drug, private insurers often also follow suit. Medicare coverage of a drug can greatly boost its sales.

Health officials say the 2004-2005 influenza season has so far looked relatively mild for the United States.

But there is a shortage of influenza vaccine, caused by the closure of Chiron Corp's British vaccine facility. The United States has about 60 million doses of vaccine made by Aventis-Pasteur, plus some available as needed from other makers.

MedImmune's FluMist, a nasal vaccine approved only for healthy adults and children, is also available but analysts have said it does not look like many people have opted to take that vaccine.