Funding Vaccine

#1

Hello there,

We are trying to build a case in order to get the bivalent vaccine currently researched at the MSK in New York funded by the Norwegian government when the treatment course is over, however, the current policy in Europe is not to supply the vaccine or any other ulterior treatments. We were wondering if there are any parents here whose child has her/his treatment fully funded by the Norwegian ( or any other) government?

The cost for the vaccine treatment at the MSK is already extremely expensive at the current study state (with the vaccine supplied for free), and we feel that by the time the study concludes, the cost may raise above the amount that we could normally source and crowdfund, while at the same time if may be to early to get the vaccine from the public system as part of the standard treatment, even if its approval it’s fasttracked.

Thank you very much in advance
Our best wishes
Maria

#2

I vaguely recall that some kids from Singapore have a type of government insurance that covers treatment overseas, I recall seeing 1 family at MSK

Maybe @ludwinski knows more about this

Australia are impossible here, I don’t know about any kids that had vaccine funded cc @Jelena

#3

Australia has the Medical Treatment Overseas Program, but clinical trials are currently excluded from coverage. We faced the same issue and had appealed to the Minister for Health who then invited us to apply for an exemption, however the bureaucratic process was very rigid… long story short, we were able to raise the funds via crowdfunding before the committee had the chance to reach the decision, so did not proceed with the application.

But if you wish to build a case, I suggest your care team reaches to the Sloan and Y-mabs and obtain as much data as possible regarding safety and efficacy of the vaccine. I talked to Kushner about this and he said they would be happy to provide whatever info is needed. From what I can see, in Australia the main issue and “scepticism” comes from the fact this is a single arm study and not a randomised controlled trial which then makes any claims regarding efficacy prone to bias, so suggest you ask the Sloan team to provide more details regarding their belief their vaccine offers an advantage over “doing nothing”. Modak did mention a couple of months ago they would publish a paper shortly regarding kids in second ++ remission, but they still do not have the data regarding first remission patients.

At any rate, happy to share more details regarding our application, message me if you wish. Hope you have better luck with your health system, sending best wishes to you and your little one!

1 Like
#4

Thank you soo much! Will pass all info to my brother and his wife. They are a bit overwhelmed so I am making some enquires on their behalf.
All my gratitude and best wishes, Marian