On Wednesday Pharmac announced $190 million to fund cancer treatments and other medicines.
Included in the funding is Trastuzumab emtansine (brand name Herceptin) to treat breast cancer in the early stages.
Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition chair Libby Burgess says the $190 million allocated should be at least doubled. (Source: Breakfast)
But Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition chair Libby Burgess says the funding allocation means breast cancer patients can only have one treatment of the drug, even if the cancer advances.
“That could happen years later, so really they gave us something with one hand and took away with the other.”
Several other countries fund Trastuzumab for patients for more than one treatment round, but not New Zealand, Burgess said.
“With clinical trials we are seeing there are new medicines coming through that if you can treat with Trastuzumab - that’s Herceptin later on - you will have a progression free and survival benefit so you can stay healthier for longer and live longer but we don’t have that option because we don’t have that basic funding of Herceptin for second treatment.
“That’s the same group of women with advanced breast cancer of that certain type that again are going to be limited to one of the options that we now have for them.”
Burgess said this approach is the underlying rationing approach Pharmac have had for decades.
“They have a really limited budget, if you have a limited budget you have to decide what to fund and what not to fund, so there are so many medicines, not only for breast cancer but across the range of treatable diseases in New Zealand where there are good medicines that can make a difference and give people longer healthier lives that are not funded because the budget's not big enough.
“So it’s nice to see $190 million come into that budget but it’s way short, it’s absolutely way short,” Burgess said.
She said the budget needs to be at least doubled in order to accommodate the different cancers and disorders that exist within New Zealand.
She said Aotearoa constantly sits at the bottom of OECD countries that fund modern medicines.
In announcing the $190 million funding yesterday, Pharmac's director of operations Lisa Williams said: “These decisions are just the beginning".
"This budget increase will mean many more medicines being progressed for funding over the coming 12 to 24 months.”.
“Pharmac is committed to continuing our work to fund more medicines for more people, delivering the best possible health outcomes for New Zealanders from within our fixed budget,” she said.
“With the $71 million pharmaceutical budget increase in 2022 and $120 million in 2023, we are working our way through our options for investment list, looking at what agreements we can now make with suppliers.”
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