Patients with severe gout will soon have a new treatment option as PHARMAC will be funding febuxostat (Adenuric) from 1 June 2014.

Gout is a painful form of arthritis, and is associated with high levels of uric acid in the blood. Pharmaceutical gout treatments aim to reduce the level of uric acid in the blood and relieve the symptoms of gout. Gout affects men more than women and is more prevalent among Māori and Pacific people.

PHARMAC’s Director of Operations Sarah Fitt says several pharmaceutical gout treatments are already funded, including allopurinol and probenecid. PHARMAC funded a further treatment for severe gout last year, benzbromarone, although it is an unregistered medicine in New Zealand.

For more details, go to: http://www.pharmac.health.nz/news/media-2014-05-21-febuxostat/