The antiarrhythmic drug Rhythmodan e Ritmodan Retard are still nowhere to be found in Italian pharmacies. Aifa has again moved the term of the shortage and, as regards the Ritmodan Retard, it seems that we will have to wait at least until mid-February 2022. After Aicarm Onlus reported the unavailability of the drug in July 2021, AIFA authorized hospital pharmacies to use the procedure envisaged in these cases for importing the drug or equivalent from abroad. Unfortunately, this procedure did not have the desired effects and the patients had to independently, and at their own expense, purchase the drug abroad in order not to interrupt the treatment.
Medication shortage is typically a risk to patients' health as it compromises the continuity of the treatment and its effectiveness. Ritmodan (Disopyramide) is used in patients with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, who can thus avoid cardiac surgery. The possibility of surgical treatment, in addition to subjecting the patient to enormous discomfort and risk, puts a very high cost on the health system which, in the meantime, is already suffering from the criticalities due to the pandemic.
AICARM Onlus, after noting that hospital pharmacies were unable to respond adequately, identified a pharmacy in France capable of supplying the drug and then instructed patients to purchase it at their own expense by importing it directly. This situation has persisted for a long time and we are very concerned that the deadline for the shortage will continue to be moved without finding a definitive solution.
Given this situation, the President of AICARM Onlus wrote again to AIFA to ask for a quick solution to be found to allow patients to find the drug in Italian pharmacies and at the expense of the NHS. The President also proposed to AIFA that, in the meantime, a report be sent to all public pharmacies with the request that this drug be actually imported once prescribed by the doctor or cardiologist of the NHS, and that the impediments that have often been removed are removed. reported by patients.
We await a rapid response from AIFA and a definitive solution to the problem of the Ritmodan deficiency that is bringing patients, in addition to the risk of having to suspend the treatment, a lot of inconvenience and costs for the purchase and import of the drug. We remind those patients with serious economic difficulties that Aicarm Onlus, within the scope of its availability, is able to offer a support for the purchase of essential drugs such as the Ritmodan.