Welsh Government has approved advice from the All Wales Medicines Strategy Group (AWMSG) for four medicines.
- Ferric maltol (Feraccru®) is recommended to treat mild to moderate iron deficiency anaemia in adults who have inflammatory bowel disease, when standard oral iron products have not worked or are not suitable. Feraccru® contains iron and is used to treat low iron stores in the body.
- Ambrisentan (Volibris®) is recommended to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in adults, adolescents and children aged 8 years and over. PAH is high blood pressure in the blood vessels (the pulmonary arteries) that carry blood from the heart to the lungs. In people with PAH, these arteries get narrower, so the heart has to work harder to pump blood through them. This causes people to feel tired, dizzy and short of breath. Ambrisentan widens the pulmonary arteries, making it easier for the heart to pump blood through them. This lowers the blood pressure and relieves the symptoms. Ambrisentan may also be given in combination with other medicines used to treat PAH.
- Bedaquiline (Sirturo®) is recommended to treat tuberculosis that affects the lungs when the disease has become resistant to other antibiotics. This is called multi-drug resistant pulmonary tuberculosis. Sirturo® must be taken together with other medicines for treating tuberculosis. It is used in adults and children aged 5 years and over, who weigh at least 15 kg.
- Migalastat (Galafold®) is recommended to treat Fabry disease in adolescents aged 12 years up to 16 years who have certain genetic mutations (changes) affecting an enzyme called alpha-galactosidase A (α-Gal A). Depending on the kind of change in the gene that produces α-Gal A, the enzyme does not work properly or is completely absent. This leads to abnormal deposits of a fatty substance known as globotriaosylceramide (GL-3) in the kidneys, heart, and other organs, leading to the symptoms of Fabry disease. Migalastat works by stabilising the enzyme that the body produces naturally, so that it can work better to reduce the amount of GL-3 that has accumulated in cells and tissues.
AWTTC’s Patient Access to Medicines Service (PAMS) supports the AWMSG to assess and monitor new medicines in Wales.