One of the most exciting medical advancements in recent times is Nanomedicine, the development of microscopic particles with healing effects. Dr Ulrike Sucher offers a health insurer's perspective.
Risks
These developments are all extremely encouraging, but nanomedicine does pose certain risks. As the particles are so tiny, they are able to travel through the body and elude the body’s normal defences. This means that they must be carefully controlled, and depending on toxicity, only used in very specific circumstances.
The unique nature of nanoparticles means it is likely that new lab tests will be required to ensure that they offer similar levels of safety to those of existing drugs. However, toxicity risks are not unique to nanomedicine and every drug must go through rigorous safety testing before it is licensed.
There are also concerns that nanoparticles may pose certain risks to the environment, although no studies exist detailing the effects that they may have. This is a challenge that scientists are currently working to overcome, but again it is not unique to nanomedicine.
Impact on insurance
Although nanomedicine is still relatively young, it is a major area of medical research that will most likely revolutionise diagnoses and treatment in the coming decades.
One of the most significant benefits of nanomedicine is a greater ability to direct treatment to specific systems and areas, thus reducing the risk of damage to healthy tissue, side effects and secondary infections. This will reduce the overall cost of treatment as resources can be focused on treating the underlying condition rather than also fighting side effects.
On this basis, nanomedicine will also vastly improve the overall experience for patients due to fewer side effects, an easier application of treatment and a generally faster recovery and discharge period.
For the insurance industry, it is still early days, with only a small number of nanomedicine treatments approved for use outside of clinical trials.
As with all medicines, cover would only be considered for a nano treatment which has completed clinical trials and been approved for use by a national authority such as the FDA, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in Europe or the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the UK.
International private medical insurers can opt to cover the latest developments in fields such as nanomedicine, and a treatment only needs to be licensed in one country for it to qualify. This means that if a treatment is covered under the policy, even if it has been approved only in Germany, a member living in the UK would also be covered for it.
While nanomedicine forms only a very small part of the overall medical landscape, its development is on an upward trajectory. Insurers who understand nanomedicine and are willing to cover the latest advances can steal a march on those who don’t, as this treatment will continue to revolutionise medical care, bring substantial benefits to members and help to reduce the overall cost of treatment.
Dr Ulrike Sucher is medical director at Allianz Worldwide Care
