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Province to fund treatment to prevent, reduce eye damage

By: Bruce Owen

Posted: 03/12/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

The Selinger government will soon make funding available for Lucentis, a treatment used to prevent and reverse eye damage, through a centralized vision program, Health Minister Theresa Oswald said Thursday.Oswald said under the new program -- it starts June 1 -- all retinal specialists in the province will be able to prescribe Lucentis through a program to be set up at the Misericordia Eye Care Centre of Excellence. Patients will be able to get the treatment with no deductible and at no cost.

Oswald said the June 1 start-up date is needed to get specialists in place who can administer the drug -- it's injected into they eye.

"It does take a lot of time," she said. "We've just landed the plane with the pharmaceutical company. It's not like we can just flip a switch."

Lucentis is used to treat wet macular degeneration, a disease that impairs vision and can cause blindness. Treatment currently costs patients several hundred dollars a shot. Age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness for people over 50 and increasing in frequency as the population ages. It destroys the macula, a tiny spot in the retina responsible for central vision.

Lucentis has been shown to stop vision loss in 90 per cent of cases. Up to 40 per cent of patients had an improvement in vision of 20/40 or better, which is greater than the level required to drive.

Dean Cousens, who heads up the Coalition For Lucentis Equality in Manitoba, said he had mixed feelings about the province's announcement.

"The minister did listen, but I'm concerned about why it's taking so long," he said.

Cousens said because of the delay in starting the program, up to 50 Manitoba's risk going blind because they can't afford to pay for the injection at a doctor's office.

Cousens also said Manitoba is late getting into the Lucentis game -- now only two provinces don't cover it, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia.

Progressive Conservative health critic Myrna Driedger said until now patients have had to spend their retirement funds so they don't go blind.

Driedger also said by only offering the drug at the Misericordia it could create long waits as people line up for treatment.

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 12, 2010 A12

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