A win for patients and hospitals

Over the past few years, we’ve all observed on the news and through stories from friends and family, just how much Australian hospitals are under strain. It certainly doesn’t help that, each day, 179 Australians are hospitalised due to heart failure alone. (1)

This disease is one of the biggest health challenges we are facing in Australia, especially amongst the elderly in our community.

With gratitude to the Albanese Government and our deeply determined Bayer ANZ team, I’m proud to share Verquvo? (vericiguat) will be available on the Pharmaceuticals Benefits Scheme (PBS) from December 1st for Australians with a common form of chronic heart failure, who have recently required emergency medical attention (often hospitalisation) for their worsening condition. It will be used in addition to standard of care treatments. (1*)

* For use in addition to standard of care therapy for the treatment of adult patients with symptomatic chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) less than 45%, who are stabilised after a recent heart failure decompensation event requiring hospital admission and/or intravenous diuretic therapy. (2)

An estimated 35,000 patients (3), many of them of pensioners, stand to benefit from the medicine when it gets added to the scheme on December 1st.

So what is worsening heart failure?

Worsening heart failure or heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (4) occurs when the heart is no longer able to pump a sufficient volume of blood around the body due to an injury or damage to the heart muscle. This can occur following a heart attack or other illness affecting the heart, or as a result of poorly controlled diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure or coronary artery disease. (5)

What’s the impact of heart failure on patients and hospitals?

Over time, patients with heart failure become short of breath, fatigued, experience swollen ankles, and everyday activities like dressing or walking to the mail box become an ordeal (6). Those whose condition is worsening are at high risk of requiring hospitalisation or even death. (7)

The thing is, when the body is no longer able to compensate for the weakened heart, the condition worsens, and patients can find themselves in a cycle of being hospitalised time and time again.

The sad reality is that one-in-five will be back in hospital within a month and most will be re-hospitalised within 12 months. (8) By this stage, heart failure has a huge impact on the life of the patient, their family and also on our hospital and healthcare system.

What is Verquvo (vericiguat)?

Verquvo can be used to treat worsening cases of heart failure, which can occur following a heart attack or other illness affecting the heart, or as a result of poorly controlled diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure or coronary artery disease. (5) The medicine works to relax and widen blood vessels in the heart, making it easier for the heart to pump more oxygenated blood around the body. (4,7)

#TeamBayer in ANZ is part of a global network of almost 100,000 employees who work together across disciplines to develop and deliver new solutions that help humanity move forward. In pursuit of our vision – Health for all, Hunger for none – we are committed to delivering access to medicines that address high unmet patient needs, and are proud to remain at the forefront of scientific advances in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases.

Bayer Australia Pty Ltd, ABN 22 000 1 38 714, 875 Pacific Highway, Pymble NSW 2073.

Ph: (02) 9391 6000. Date of Preparation: November 2022 / COR-VER-AU-0030-1

References:

1. Heart Foundation. Key Statistics: Heart Failure. 2021. Available at: https://www.heartfoundation.org.au/activities-finding-or-opinion/key-statistics-heart-failure.

2.Schedule of Pharmaceutical Benefits. Available at: https://www.pbs.gov.au/pbs/ December 2022.?

3. Bayer Australia. Data on File. September 2022.

4. Bayer Australia. VERQUVO Product Information, 2021.

5. Mosterd A et al. Clinical epidemiology of heart failure, Heart. 2007;93:1137-1146

6. Calvert MJ et al. The impact of chronic heart failure on health-related quality of life data acquired in the baseline phase of the CARE-HF study. Eur J Heart Fail. 2005;7:243-51.

7. Armstrong, P et al. Vericiguat in Patients with Heart Failure and Reduced Ejection Fraction. N Engl J Med 2020; 382:1883-1893.

8. Al-Omary, M. Et al. Mortality and Readmission Following Hospitalisation for Heart Failure in Australia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, Heart, Lung and Circulation, 2018; 27(8):917-927.orta