The once-a-day pill Jardiance, taken for the progressive heart disease “preserved ejection fraction”, has been shown to reduce hospitalisation and death by more than 20 per cent.
Around half of patients with heart failure have the condition, when the muscle becomes too stiff to adequately fill with blood, compromising oxygen supply to the body.
The subsidy will cut the price from around $60 a month currently to $30 a month for eligible patients and to around $7.30 for concession holders.
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler has announced the pill will be added to the PBS on November 1.
“We know that chronic heart failure leads to as many as 200 hospitalisations every single day,” he said.
Symptoms of the condition include shortness of breath on exercise, tiredness, fatigue or swelling in the ankles.
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Cardiologists say up to 50 per cent of people with the condition are dead within five years but while the condition is serious, it can be treated.
Among those benefiting from the medication’s addition to the PBS is 84 year-old Vicky Kelly.
The former avid golfer developed dizziness and fatigue from the condition several years ago, unable to even get to her letter box without shortness of breath.
“I just stopped having energy,” she said.
“(Taking this medication) it’s like being alive again.”
