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The corona wave could have an unexpected consequence: Cancer diseases would not be discovered in time, say Vas Narasimhan and Severin Schwan.
Treatment of Covid-19 patients at the Bruderholzspital near Basel. Other patients currently do not dare to go for a preventive examination.
Photo: Alex Kühni
In the midst of the Crown crisis, the director of the pharmaceutical company Novartis is alarmed when he warns of a wave of new cancer diseases. The reason: many preventive tests are canceled because people no longer dare to go to hospitals or have postponed these appointments.
“There is a dramatic decrease in the number of noncommunicable disease diagnoses,” Vas Narasimhan warned. on Tuesday in a conference call on the pharmaceutical giant’s quarterly figures. “It cannot continue like this, we must not allow a second epidemic like this one.”
“Go to the doctor again”
Roche is also alarmed. “Go to the doctor again,” is what CEO Severin Schwan recently asked in an interview with the AWP news agency. “Unfortunately, even after many months in Corona’s crisis mode, it is still true that many patients with other serious illnesses do not dare to go to the hospital or doctor due to Covid-19.”
This worries him more and more, Schwan said, “because most people get sick and die from diseases other than Covid-19.” And he warned: “Over time, this will bring massive medical consequences.”
Novartis boss Vas Narasimhan has only been observing a level of consultation with hospitals and doctors around the world since late September, as in pre-Corona times. However, this is also not true in all subject areas. He said he was still expecting big fluctuations.
The appeal is not made out of pure charity: Roche and Novartis are among the largest manufacturers of cancer therapies.
Confirmed for Switzerland Hirslanden’s largest private clinic group the decrease in patients with diseases other than Covid-19. «During the spring close, we actually had fewer consultations in our clinic emergency rooms, also in the area of life-threatening illnesses like strokes or heart attacks.»says a spokesperson. Too there are less The tumor operation.
I still knowNot to see a reluctance to go to a hospital in some patients. «Especially given the growing number of Covid cases today, it is generally important to ensure that there is no shortage of medical supplies»Says the spokesman for the clinic.
Novartis chief Narasimhan assumes that hospitals can now maintain normal operations despite the second corona wave. This time they should not postpone the treatment of other patients for their own financial reasons. And: telemedicine should now also be expanded. Doctors should also conduct consultations digitally, Narasimhan urges.
According to Bill Anderson, director of Roche’s pharmaceuticals division, there has been a recovery process, but health systems around the world are less busy than in the pre-Crown period. “The latest available data suggests that health systems are currently 85 to 95 percent busy compared to normal September and October.”
Novartis is already selling fewer cancer therapies
Roche and Novartis’ appeal is not pure charity: they are both among the best researchers and manufacturers of cancer therapies in the world. If people go to the doctor or hospital less often, pharmaceutical manufacturers feel it too: if new cases of cancer and other serious diseases are not recognized and treated in time, this means a sales risk for them.
At Novartis, total sales in the third quarter increased only minimally by 1 percent. Sales of cancer drugs even fell slightly. According to Novartis, the effect can be explained not only by competition for cheap copycat drugs from the previous best-sellers Afinitor and Exjade, but also by the Covid-19 pandemic.
