PREGNANT women desperate to control their morning sickness symptoms are paying up to $7000 for a drug not yet approved for their use.

Obstetricians are prescribing the anti-nausea drug Zofran – only subsidised for use in controlling nausea in chemotherapy patients – to women with a severe form of morning sickness called hyperemesis gravidarum.

Up to 3 per cent of pregnant women – or 9000 in Australia each year- suffer the condition, and they are usually admitted to hospital several times during their pregnancies.

But because the drug’s manufacturer has not sought approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration to have it subsidised under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for pregnancy sickness, it costs $8 a pill.

Obstetrician Jim Ferry said Zofran was often the only drug that provided relief for those with hyperemesis gravidarum and should be subsidised.

"these women are seriously ill, they are vomiting almost constantly, they are bedridden and unable to function," he said.

"I have had women terminate wanted pregnancies because they just cannot cope with the effects of hyperemesis."

A federal health department spokeswoman said the drug had not been publicly funded for pregnant women because the TGA had not listed treatment of the condition as one of the drug’s intended uses.

A spokeswoman for drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline said there was not enough clinical evidence to prove Zofran was safe for use by pregnant women, although there appeared to be no adverse outcomes, she said.

But Box Hill woman Kendall Cordes, 38, who is seven months pregnant with her third child, said it was unfair Zofran was not subsidised: it was the only thing that stopped her from having to stay in hospital.

She said she had to take the more expensive Zofran wafers at a cost of $22 each, or more than $200 a week.

"It would cost the health system a lot less to fund the drug than it would to make a hospital bed available to them … throughout their pregnancy," Ms Cordes said.

Latest Cancer News

TUESDAY, Oct. 26 (HealthDay News) — Children who survive cancer face an increased risk for gastrointestinal complications later on, a new study suggests.

The findings highlight the increased need for long-term surveillance of GI problems among childhood cancer survivors, the researchers said.

“Current treatments have dramatically increased survival rates for children with cancer, but we know that many cancer therapies — including surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy — can cause significant gastrointestinal complications for patients,” study senior author Dr. Lisa Diller, director of the Perini Family Survivors Center at the Dana-Farber/Children’s Hospital Cancer Center, said in a Dana-Farber news release.

“Little is known, however, about the long-term GI consequences for childhood cancer survivors,” she added.

The authors examined data on nearly 14,400 childhood cancer survivors. All had been diagnosed with cancer between 1970 and 1986, and all had survived at least five years post-treatment.

Most had undergone chemotherapy, and about one-third radiation, sometimes in combination with chemotherapy.

Patients faced a higher risk for liver complications, such as cirrhosis, gallstones, and jaundice as well. lower GI problems — including colitis, constipation, diarrhea, and intestinal polyps or blockage — also occurred among survivors at a higher rate.

The risks were higher among patients diagnosed with cancer at an older age and who were exposed to more aggressive radiation and/or chemotherapy treatment or more extensive surgery.

The findings prompted the research team to advise physicians to review all GI problems in childhood cancer survivors to see if they could be symptoms of a serious disease. They also encouraged patients to discuss their childhood cancer treatment with doctors when seeking care for GI complications.

Diller and her colleagues were to present the results of their investigation, funded by the National Cancer Institute, at this week’s meeting of the International Society of Paediatric Oncology in Boston.

– Alan Mozes

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SOURCE: Dana-Farber/Children’s Hospital Cancer Center, news release, Oct. 21, 2010