The National Health Care Institute has advised the Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport to reimburse eplontersen (Wainzua®) from the basic healthcare package. This medicinal product can be used in certain patients with a hereditary form of amyloidosis. This is a specific condition in which the body is unable to handle a certain type of protein. If the Minister adopts our advice, eplontersen will be included in the Medicine Reimbursement System (GVS). Only then will this medicinal product be reimbursed from the healthcare insurer's basic healthcare package.
Current state of affairs: advisory report sent to the Minister
The National Health Care Institute has sent this advice to the Minister of VWS. The Minister makes the final decision whether or not to reimburse the medicinal product from the basic healthcare package.
Eplontersen is intended for certain people with a hereditary form of amyloidosis
Eplontersen is the active substance. The brand name is Wainzua®. The medicinal product is an injection given subcutaneously every month. The medicinal product can be used in people with a hereditary form of amyloidosis with neuropathy (ATTRv-PN). Amyloidosis is a collective term for diseases in which the body fails to process a specific type of protein effectively. In healthy people, endogenous protein molecules are folded up in a specific way that allows them to do their work. This does not happen in people with amyloidosis: in them, the folding of the protein molecules goes wrong. Those proteins then clump together in the body at places where they do not belong. They also lose their functional capability and can damage tissues and organs.
In people with ATTRv-PN, these proteins accumulate above all in the nerves. As a result, the nerves often no longer work properly. This is known as polyneuropathy (PN). People with this condition suffer in particular from tingling sensations, increased or reduced sensation, pain and muscular weakness in the arms and legs.
National Health Care Institute advice on reimbursement of eplontersen
The National Health Care Institute advises the Minister of VWS to reimburse eplontersen (Wainzua®) from the basic healthcare package. The advice is to include the medicinal product in List 1A of the GVS in a newly formed cluster together with vutrisiran (Amvuttra®).
For more information on the GVS and the Lists 1A, 1B and 2, see page ‘Reimbursement of outpatient medicines’.
More information or questions?
If you have any questions about this advice, please send your question to the National Health Care Institute via warcg@zinl.nl. If you have questions about the reimbursement of a medicinal product, the personal expenses or whether you should pay a contribution, please ask your health insurance provider.
How did the advice come about?
The Minister of VWS asks the National Health Care Institute to make an assessment. The Scientific Advisory Board (WAR) advises the National Health Care Institute about the assessment. The Minister makes the final decision whether or not to reimburse the medicinal product from the basic healthcare package.
Explanation about the reimbursement of medicinal products
Eplontersen is an extramural medicinal product. Extramural means: medicines for home use that can be obtained at the pharmacy with the prescription from a physician. They are only reimbursed from the basic healthcare package if they are listed in the GVS.