Medicine’s ‘missing’ millions
Cancer patients say they are sick of paying for their own survival after an independent report revealed a $682 million ‘‘hole’’ in government funding for lifesaving medicines.
To keep her terminal breast cancer at bay, Auckland woman Lynne Hanson pays $1100 every month for fulvestrant – an unfunded hormone therapy drug – and feels the best she has in years.
But the 60-year-old refuses to remortgage her house to pay for her treatment.
‘‘Basically I’m paying to live. The reality for me is at some point I will have to make the decision to die because I can’t afford to live any more.’’
The $682m figure in yesterday’s report from the New Zealand Institution for Economic Research (NZIER) is the amount it says would be needed to restore the community pharmaceuticals budget to 2007 levels.
In real terms, Budget spending for over-the-counter medicines, vaccines, haemophilia treatments, nicotine replacement, and cancer medicines – sometimes administered in hospitals – dropped from 6.2 per cent in 2007 to
3.6 per cent in 2018, according to the report.
But government drug-buying agency Pharmac said it’s getting better deals for medicines, and argued less money did not mean fewer drugs. Spending was lower because greater competition and tender processes had dramatically reduced prices.
Advocate for better funding Terre Nicholson, who has terminal breast cancer, could not understand why, in that case, greater investment was not going into drugs for breast cancer, which kills more than 600 women a year.
She has vowed to fight for greater access while she’s still here. She has collected close to
5000 signatures calling for the Government to fund palbociclib (Ibrance) for breast cancer treatment, and intends to hand it to Health Minister David Clark.
‘‘We shouldn’t have to fight for funding while we’re fighting for our lives.’’
The NZIER report was commissioned by Medicines New Zealand, a drug lobby group, and collated from Pharmac annual reports and Official Information
"We shouldn't have to fight for funding while we're fighting for our lives."
Funding advocate Terre Nicholson, who has terminal cancer
Act requests.
Medicines NZ general manager Graeme Jarvis said New Zealand was currently ranked 20th out of 20 comparable OECD countries for access to modern medicines.
‘‘[The shortfall] helps to explain both how the medicines waiting list has come about and why the list has been growing.’’
Clark said the Government was committed to providing Pharmac ‘‘with a good level of funding, enabling it to meet most of the needs of New Zealanders seeking access to funded medicines’’.
‘‘It will never be possible to provide everything.’’
On the campaign trail, Labour proposed a $100m cancer agency to improve access to drugs and treatment times.
When asked where this sat on Labour’s to-do list, Clark said: ‘‘Fighting cancer and achieving better access is a high priority’’.
Lung Foundation chief executive Philip Hope said the most recently approved treatment for lung cancer was pemetrexed, which Pharmac funded from November 1. It was funded in Australia more than a decade ago.
‘‘There is no greater pain than to watch someone you love die prematurely because they didn’t get access to treatments that are considered the standard of care abroad,’’ he said.