Nine new drugs to be funded
Newly-diagnosed terminal breast cancer patients will have access to a lifeextending drug after an announcement by Pharmac.
Strict eligibility criteria mean the drug, Perjeta (pertuzumab), will be available only to women who have received no previous treatment from January 1.
The breast cancer drug is one of nine medicines in a major funding package Pharmac has negotiated with Roche covering 10 different conditions.
While the news will be welcomed by many women with the aggressive cancer, the criteria will exclude about 160 women who have received treatment.
Terminal breast cancer patient Gillian Wintrup said she had held out hope Pharmac would change its initial proposal after considering submissions.
Through tears, the Tokoroa woman said it was hard to believe she, and others like her, wouldn’t be able to get the drug.
‘‘I honestly thought enough of us had given them real life examples. Some bean counter has gone, well this costs this much, but we’re actually real people.’’
Pharmac acting chief executive Sarah Fitt said the agreement with Roche would see nearly 2000 people over five years getting access to medicines they needed for diseases across oncology, haematology, respiratory and others.
Included in the package is a new breast cancer medicine, pertuzumab, a new medicine for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, obinutuzumab, and a new idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis treatment.
West Coast mother-of-five and terminal breast cancer patient Tamara Malone was not surprised by the decision.
‘‘For women in my position, there are not a lot of chemotherapy drugs they can have so when we thought there was another one that was going to be funded, it was great news.
‘‘So it’s disappointing. It would have been another drug that we would have benefited from.’’
When she saw Pharmac’s proposal to exclude women who had already had other treatment, she called her health insurance company to see if it would cover some of the drug’s price.
She was told the insurer’s criteria was the same as Pharmac’s and she would not be eligible. ‘‘So I had a glimmer of hope and then I realised that wasn’t going to be the case.’’
NZ Breast Cancer Foundation chief executive Evangelia Henderson said the decision was a bitter pill for patients who missed out. ‘‘This is a heartless decision by Pharmac – we urged them to fund Perjeta for all patients currently being treated with Herceptin for metastatic breast cancer.’’