Infertility affects, on average, 10% of couples of reproductive age, a figure that is increasing and could reach 30% in certain regions of the world. For 4 decades, in vitro fertilization (IVF) has been the preferred therapeutic alternative for couples with fertility problems, a procedure thanks to which more than 8 million human beings have been born since 1978.
However, despite the fact that infertility has been considered a pathology since 2009 and that IVF is a therapy recognized worldwide, its access continues to be restricted for a significant proportion of the population, mainly due to the high financial cost of treatment and the lack of of reproductive health education policies.
In the case of Chile, figures from the Latin American Registry of Assisted Reproduction (RLA) indicate that, in 2018, 11 centers reported their data, adding 4,452 cycles of assisted reproduction treatments included in the official report of the procedures performed that year. Although the percentage is above the average for the region, the figure is far from the number of procedures to cover the country’s need: even though FONASA has had an IVF program with state funds since 1992, only 15% of IVF treatments in Chile are covered, so the remaining 85% is financed by patients privately.
Assisted reproduction treatments consist of hormonal therapies that prepare the woman’s body for optimal ovulation -in terms of quantity and quality-, enhancing her reproductive system to successfully carry out a pregnancy. Bemfola®, from the Hungarian laboratory Gedeon Richter, is a state-of-the-art medicine, developed with cutting-edge technology for the stimulation of the reproductive system. Bemfola®, is a recombinant human follicle stimulating hormone (r-hFSH), being the first of its kind in the European market, and which is now available in Chile for assisted fertility treatment patients.
Marketed in the European Union, Israel, the Middle East, Australia and now in Chile, Bemfola® seeks to open the door to access to therapy for all types of patients, “providing quality, safety, efficacy and more convenient and competitive prices in a market dominated by the lack of therapeutic alternatives. The drug comes to renew the market and give the opportunity for all patients to have the opportunity to form a family and have a baby in their home “, reads a statement from the pharmaceutical company.
The active compound in Bemfola® is recombinant follitropin alfa, used in women who do not produce ovules, that is, women who have stopped ovulating either due to natural causes (age-premenopause), due to an infertility pathology or as an effect secondary to pharmacological treatments related to other pathologies and that have reduced their fertility (cancer, for example).
It is prescribed to patients who do not respond to the primary treatment with clomiphene citrate (follicle-stimulating medicine most commonly used in low complexity assisted reproduction treatment), as well as in highly complex treatments that require the intervention of a medical team specialized in infertility. Finally, it should be noted that the Bemfola® administration method is by subcutaneous injection with a pre-filled pen, storing the medicine in the refrigerator and only cutting off the cold chain once it begins to be used and for a period of no more than 3 months after opening.
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