Joanna* has more energy and feels mentally better with the medication. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

A ground-breaking drug that is making life easier for some multiple sclerosis sufferers will be added to the Government’s formulary list next year, The Sunday Times of Malta has learnt.

The Malta Community Chest Fund is financially helping those who are seeking the treatment, but many still cannot afford the drug, which costs around €1,760 per month.

The drug is the first pill-based medicine that helps reduce relapses for some with highly active MS.

According to drug company Novartis, switching to Gilenya (fingolimod) from an injected treatment (beta-interferon) when this was no longer effective helped nearly 50 per cent more patients become free of symptoms.

Gilenya was approved by the European Commission in 2011, and last July, the Health Ministry said the medicine had been approved for procurement. However, no funds were allocated.

A spokesman yesterday said that Gilenya was one of the medicines approved as part of the preparatory work for the 2014 Budget.

“Next year it will be dispensed as a formulary item. Meanwhile, we have recommended that patients seek assistance at the MCCF,” he said.

The MCCF helps 40-year-old Joanna* fund her monthly prescription. But if it were not for the support she receives from her pharmacist, and financial help from her family, she would not be able to take the medicine.

Multiple sclerosis symptoms usually appear between the ages of 20 and 50 and there are around 300 people in Malta with the condition.

There are different types of MS but the most common is relapsing-remitting, where the condition flares up and then calms down from time to time. Another form is progressive MS where the symptoms get steadily worse.

You are filled with courage and realise that you will not spend your life in bed

Ever since she was diagnosed with MS 18 years ago, Joanna was prescribed the beta-interferon injection, and every three months she would be given a course of steroids after a relapse.

In summer, when MS sufferers often feel weaker because of the heat, Joanna is usually given two courses of steroids at hospital.

However, since switching to Gilenya five months ago, she has not set foot inside a hospital.

“My life has changed. Before I switched to Gilenya I could barely walk for a couple of hours, but nowadays I can stand on my feet for some four hours and sometimes I don’t even need the cane to walk. It used to take me weeks to recover from a relapse and sometimes people would have to lift me up to put me in a car to admit me to hospital.

“Nowadays I do feel the relapse approaching, but it passes without having to go to hospital,” she said, noting that the incessant headaches she used to get while on beta-interferon have become rare.

Her list of drugs – pain-killers, sleeping pills, anti-depressants, steroids and the beta-interferon injection – have been replaced by a daily pill.

“I also feel more energetic. When you are mentally better, you are filled with courage and realise that you will not spend your life in bed.

“My lifestyle has improved, and I am now able to help my daughter clean around the house.

“But I know of MS sufferers who cannot have Gilenya as the financial aid they receive is not enough,” she said. Her claim was reiterated by her pharmacist.

Some MS sufferers do not remain financially independent and have to cut down their working hours.

Others have to make alterations to their house and go to physiotherapists among others, increasing their monthly expenditure.

Joanna has had to change her car to an automatic one, install grip bars at her house, and has had to foot air-conditioning bills to beat the heat.

*Name has been changed