MRI availability

Just a thought on 'supply'. Much of the discussion of this has been around Bene's ability to produce iPPS once we get FDA and TGA approvals and go commercial.

I note that potential patients for iPPS need to have an MRI to show the level of cartilage damage, BMEs, etc to confirm they are within the ranges that iPPS can be effective.

While most OA sufferers will have had an MRI at some stage, they may be required to have a new one to show the current status before a doctor prescribes iPPS and/or their insurer agrees to pay.

This may dramatically increase the demand for MRIs. Do we have a handle on the capacity of diagnostic clinics to provide enough scans to keep up with our commercialisation?

As a start, according to this government report (linked below, see para 3.9) there were 500 machines in Australia in September 2017. Only two-thirds of them were fully or partially licensed for payment of the scan by Medicare. The report is critical of this limitation and other restrictions and rules on the use of machines with regards to payment by Medicare.

I started looking into this wondering if Australia has enough machines to meet our demand. That is not clear to me. However, what this report seems to discuss are complications around licensing and who pays. The upshot being that the more modern machines are in more affluent areas where people pay their own costs. The distribution of machines has not kept up with population growth and many people need to travel to find a machine, especially one that that is covered by Medicare.

There also seem to be varying lists of ailments that are or are not covered by Medicare.

I wonder if Paradigm's management has thought out this situation and if the availability of MRI scans will support the demand for iPPS.

Use of MRI in Australia