NHS England has commissioned Roche and Chugai’s joint haemophilia A drug, Hemlibra (emicizumab), agreeing to fund the drug for around 2,000 people in the country who live with the condition.

The companies announced that the drug will be reimbursed for people with severe congenital haemophilia A without factor VIII inhibitors, following NHS England’s decision to routinely fund the product for all haemophilia A patients with factor VIII inhibitors in July 2018.

The ‘life-changing’ treatment dramatically cuts the risk of life-threatening bleeds and reduces treatment time, and will be available as part of a package of measures set out in the NHS Long Term Plan which will save lives through access to the most advanced medical interventions.

Last month it was revealed that data from pooled HAVEN studies of the drug found that a high proportion of patients experienced zero treated bleeds on Hemlibra, and that this was maintained over a median of 83 weeks. Over 87% of participants had no treated joint bleeds and over 92% of participants experienced no spontaneous bleeds in each interval from week 25.

Richard Eaton, rare conditions lead at Roche Products UK said that the company are “delighted” that NHS England will reimburse the drug under the conditions, as it has been shown to “effectively control bleeds and is the only prophylactic medicine that can be administered subcutaneously and maintains a sustained therapeutic level between doses.”

He went on to say that Roche and Chugai are also “progressing with reimbursement discussions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.”

Haemophilia A is an inherited, serious disorder in which a person’s blood does not clot properly, leading to uncontrolled and often spontaneous bleeding, which affects around 320,000 people worldwide.

Approximately 50-60% of those who have it have a severe form of the disorder.