The National Party has promised to pay for 13 cancer treatments to lift survival rates.
"Each year, more than 25,000 Kiwis are diagnosed with cancer," National Party leader Christopher Luxon said. "Almost every New Zealander will have some experience with cancer in their lifetime – either personally or through a friend, colleague or loved one."
"But despite the hard work and dedication of New Zealand's trusted healthcare professionals, cancer survival rates here lag behind Australia, partially due to Australia's broader funding of cancer medicines."
Australia and New Zealand have the highest incident rates of cancer in the OECD, driven in large part by high rates of melanoma skin cancer.
In 2020, cancer proved fatal for over 10,000 Kiwis. Te Aho o Te Kahu, the Cancer Control Agency, identified in its 2020 report that "improvements in cancer survival rates have been slower in Aotearoa compared with other countries".
National's plan is to allocate $280 million in ring-fenced funding to Pharmac over four years to pay for 13 treatments "for lung, bowel, kidney, melanoma, and head and neck cancers that provide significant clinical benefits and are funded in Australia but not in New Zealand".
"Under National, New Zealanders will not have to leave the country, mortgage their home, or start a Givealittle page to fund potentially lifesaving and life-extending treatments that are proven to work and are readily available across the Tasman," Luxon said.
"Lifting New Zealand’s game on cancer will be a priority for the next National Government.
"We think this is a better use of taxpayers' money than paying $5 prescription fees for everyone, including those who can afford to pay it themselves."
This is a reference to the Labour Government's 2023 budget initiative which dropped the prescription fees as a measure to help ease the cost of living.
"Removing the $5 charge will make it easier and cheaper for New Zealanders to access the medicines they need, having a meaningful impact for many households, particularly those who have multiple prescriptions to fill on a regular basis," Health Minister Ayesha Verrall said earlier in the year.
The National Party opposed this initiative and its $618 million price-tag, preferring to replace by making prescriptions free for low-income Kiwis and superannuitants — and capping the total amount anyone would spend at $100 a year.
They say these targeting changes would reduce the cost of the subsidy by $316 million over four years — and the savings would go towards funding 13 cancer treatments which would provide "substantial clinical benefit", according to the Cancer Control Agency.
The Cancer Control Agency notes in its report on gaps in the availability of cancer medicines that comparison with Australian funding may imply they're the "gold standard" but "no country is likely to have achieved the perfect balance of public cancer medicines funding."
The 13 cancer treatments National's plan would fund are as follows:
- Osimertinib for lung cancer – first-line therapy
- Osimertinib for lung cancer – second-line therapy
- Atezolizumab with bevacizumab for liver cancer
- Cetuximab or panitumumab for bowel cancer – first-line therapy
- Cetuximab for bowel cancer – second-line therapy
- Nivolumab with ipilimumab for kidney cancer – first-line therapy
- Nivolumab for kidney cancer – second-line therapy
- Axitinib for kidney cancer – second-line therapy
- Pembrolizumab for bladder cancer
- Nivolumab for head and neck cancer
- Nivolumab or pembrolizumab for melanoma (adjuvant)
- Dabrafenib with trametinib for melanoma (adjuvant)
- BRAF/MEK inhibitors for melanoma (unresectable)
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