Around 7 million people in the UK have asthma, of whom some 58,000 suffer ‘really scary’ attacks that require hospitalisation. These severe sufferers will be heartened to know that Depemokimab,, a new ‘ultra-long acting’ medicine that only needs to be taken twice a year, has just received UK approval, having shown it can reduce the number of severe attacks by 72 percent (Sunday Times, 28 Dec).
An ‘important step forward’ then, showing how capitalism has our welfare at heart? Er, not entirely. The paper added that the drug ‘will reduce the time patients need to take off work, as well as free up NHS resources’. Money priorities linger like a bad smell, even over positive news stories.
No comments:
Post a Comment