Subsidies Available for Knee Osteoarthritis Injectable Therapy and Approval Thresholds for Other Regenerative Injections

Dr Hamid Razak asked the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Minister for Health (a) given that steroids and hyaluronic acid are currently the only injectable therapy subsidised for knee osteoarthritis, whether the Ministry has assessed how this compares with international guidelines; and (b) what clinical and cost-effectiveness thresholds must be met for other regenerative injections to be considered for approval or subsidy.

Subsidies are accorded to treatments if they are assessed to be clinically effective, safe and cost-effective. Hence, only intra-articular corticosteroid injections are currently subsidised for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis.

Hyaluronic acid and other regenerative injections are currently not subsidised as there is insufficient evidence of their clinical effectiveness. This assessment is aligned with high-quality international guidelines. The Ministry of Health will continue to evaluate the evidence from both local and overseas studies as these become available.