Aussie pharmacy ignores legal threat on diabetes sensors
An Australian pharmacy will continue to send lower-cost diabetes equipment across the Tasman, despite a cease and desist from a medical manufacturer.
Parents of children with Type 1 diabetes learned via social media that Melbourne-based David Jones Pharmacy was selling a pack of five continuous glucose monitoring sensors for NZ$310, including postage. In New Zealand, the same sensors, made by US medical manufacturer Medtronic, are exclusively sold by distributor Intermed for NZ$441.
While other parents rejoiced at making a $130 monthly saving through the Australian pharmacy, Nelson mum Jenny Bennett was furious.
“How is it that a retailer (David Jones Pharmacy) can sell them to New Zealand cheaper than Intermed?”
The sensors monitor blood sugar, sending information to a pump so it can administer insulin, cutting out the need for finger-pricking.
While the pump is funded by Pharmac, the sensors are not, although on Thursday the agency said it would explore funding them from July.
Bennett emailed Intermed, asking how David Jones Pharmacy was able to provide the products at a cheaper rate.
“This is $130 that my whānau, and many other whānau, could have in their pocket each month,” she told them.
Intermed’s sales and marketing manager Robert Cooper told Bennett that New Zealand and Australia had “different healthcare and government funding mechanisms”, and said the sensors were subsidised by the Australian government. He reiterated these claims to Stuff.
But then Bennett learned, from another parent, that manufacturer Medtronic had sent David Jones Pharmacy a letter threatening legal action if the company continued to supply Kiwi customers with the sensors.
A spokesperson for manufacturer Medtronic told Stuff the sensors should come from an authorised supplier.
“Medtronic maintain a database of people using our technologies to inform them of any important updates regarding the use of their medical device.
“By facilitating New Zealand consumers access via an unauthorised distribution channel, David Jones Pharmacy are putting patient safety and quality control standards at risk, as well as voiding Medtronic’s product warranty for New Zealand consumers and patients.”
The pharmacy was “not a legally authorised distributor of Medtronic diabetes products in New Zealand”, and consumers risked their products being out of warranty, the spokesperson said.
“David Jones Pharmacy is using Australian taxpayer funds to profit unethically by selling NDSS [a government-funded diabetes service] products to customers in New Zealand.”
However, according to the NDSS website, subsidised sensors are only available to those registered with the service, which Kiwi consumers are not.
David Jones Pharmacy spokesperson Hong Le confirmed this. Pharmacies could claim subsidised sensors on a patient’s behalf, he said. The sensors Kiwis accessed were not subsidised, but sold at a price set by the pharmacy.
Le confirmed the company had received a cease and desist. However, the pharmacy would continue to supply New Zealand families. “We have chosen to ignore [the letter] as it was built upon unsubstantiated accusations,” he said.
The pharmacy sold the sensors below recommended retail price, he said.
Bennett said David Jones’ response was “awesome”: a $130 monthly saving was significant to many families, she said. Bennett’s 10-year-old son, Taeo, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at 8 years old.
In Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas makes little or no insulin, the hormone that prompts glucose to enter cells to produce energy. Like many others who are diagnosed in childhood or adolescence, Taeo’s diabetes was an autoimmune response to an illness: in his case, Covid.
Last year, he began using a pump and sensor. This meant “a shift from multiple daily injections of two types of insulin to a closed-loop pump: a fake pancreas, basically,” Bennett explained.
“It's good the pump is funded, but if you don’t have the sensor it would still be a really hard system to run ... you have to get up at 2am every day and finger prick your child. Because they could die.”
The system helps Taeo have as normal a life as possible, she said.
“You don’t want diabetes to take precedence, but you have to manage it to keep them alive.”
Over the years, successive governments have pledged to fund the sensors but have come up short.
In the run-up to the last general election, the National Party's health spokesperson, Shane Reti, and leader Christopher Luxon, promised to find the $5.2 million a year to provide the sensors to under-18s.
Reti told Stuff the sensors remained a “top priority” for the Government.
“I understand that the procurement process is under way, with Pharmac working hard to enable this.”
Bennett has heard this before. While her whānau is able to meet the cost of the sensors, not everyone is so lucky.
“It creates a massive inequity for families who don’t have the financial means to pay a weekly amount, and it’s also a contributing risk to longer term health outcomes.
“It's really expensive to keep them alive. By not funding [sensors] you are risking the lives of kids who don't have that layer of privilege.”
On Thursday, Pharmac announced a proposal to fund sensors and other equipment for people with type 1 diabetes from July.
If funding is secured, around 18,000 people with the chronic condition would be affected.
A spokesperson said the agency had made “provisional agreements” with suppliers to provide the equipment.