Tackling vitamin deficiencies in rare-disease patients
12 Sep 2018 | DEKAs
"When it comes to medical nutrition, It's clear to us that especially among patients with rare diseases, vitamins and malabsorption are areas patients struggle with," says Roberto Jongejan of DEKAs. Jongejan spoke with NutritionInsight at the 40th European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN) Congress, held in Madrid.
This is Lisa Gunn at Espen Congress 2018 in Madrid, and I'm here at the DA stand joined by Roberto Yogan.
Roberto, could you tell us a bit of what you're seeing from medical nutritionists and medical professionals?
What sort of questions are you getting or what sort of areas are becoming a growing interest within medical nutrition?
Within medical nutrition, it's clear to us that especially the areas of the rare patients that have deficiencies with vitamins, because we are about vitamins and about malabsorption, those are the areas that they struggle with.
There is an issue with the reimbursement of vitamins because obviously payers think that vitamins should be paid out of pocket, but for special groups who have malabsorption, it is really important that these become available to the people because otherwise they will not take them.
For instance, in bariatric surgery, this is an issue and then it becomes a danger as.
So that's the question.
And then I get difficult patients, a lot of questions that they want vitamins for patients who have rare diseases or things like that.
Within your portfolio of stand products at the momentan products we have products we have had a grant from the US Cystic fibrosis Foundation to develop a specific portfolio for cystic fibrosis.
This is an area that no one really cares about in the past and what you see a lot in the vitamin business, let's say is that the evidence base is very low, so people don't do clinical trials.
They just throw together.
Put it on the market and so we have developed 3 areas where we have good evidence that our products work and they are all in one proposition.
So all the vitamins are in one product.
So it's cystic fibrosis, it's cholestatic liver disease, which is extremely rare.
You're talking about biliary atresia, children waiting for liver transplantation.
There's a big medical need there because these children otherwise get intramuscular injections every 2 weeks, which for a baby is not good.
And then we have bariatric surgery, and bariatric surgery is an area that is really Booming or blooming, I wish it weren't because I am a physician and it's really not good, but if you ask me about the future, I think that's where it's coming from.
That was my next question.
That was your next question.
I think this is really my thought.
We are up for a tsunami of patients with bariatric surgery, and this is a huge problem.
Payers, I don't think really recognize what so many years of obesity will bring them in terms of costs and payload.
And so the bariatric surgery, I even see pediatricians come to me and they are already considering giving children bariatric surgery, and we must know that bariatric surgery is doing.
Damage to someone, you change his piping, let's say, whereas in principle nothing is wrong with it, and this from a medical ethical perspective is also a very difficult decision.
So if we're going to operate more and more of these people, we need to be prepared, and what we see is that all these people have to pay their own vitamins and they just don't because they usually have problems with financial stuff and then they just don't take it and this also comes at a price.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
