Parliamentary hearing for family

After delivering three petitions to Parliament calling for a change to the way lifesaving drugs are funded, a Palmerston North family are taking their invitation to speak at the next Health Select Committee meeting as a positive sign.

Malcolm Mulholland and his wife Wiki, a Palmerston North mother of three who has stagefour breast cancer, were among a contingent of 100-plus women and supporters who marched on Parliament in October to deliver three petitions.

The first two were calling for Government funding of Ibrance and Kadcyla, treatments for advanced breast cancer, through drug buying agency Pharmac, and the third was calling for the Government to look at Pharmac and launch an inquiry into unfunded medication.

They have now been invited to speak at the next Health Select Committee meeting on December 4.

Malcolm Mulholland said going to the select committee meeting was a good opportunity to talk about their perspective and why they believed something needed changing.

‘‘It’s encouraging they have called us in at relatively short notice.

‘‘We’re really pleased that clearly it’s a priority for the Health Select Committee.’’

Malcolm Mulholland said during his research he discovered Pharmac ranked last out of 20 OECD countries when it came to the funding of modern medicines and from 2011 until 2017 the agency had funded the fewest modern medicines, compared with other comparative countries.

In its 25 years, Malcolm Mulholland said Pharmac had never been externally reviewed or been the subject of a Government inquiry. ‘‘Pharmac is a 1993 model that’s never been updated or reviewed.’’

He said the waiting time for new medicines was also far too long. ‘‘One drug Wiki needs has been on the waitlist for 10 years.’’

They are calling on the Health and Ma¯ori Affairs Select Committees to conduct the inquiry into unfunded treatments, with a separate focus on Ma¯ ori.

Mulholland said this was because Ma¯ ori had a lower survival rate compared with nonma¯ ori when it came to cancer, as well as having a higher rate of avoidable cancer deaths compared with non-ma¯ ori.

Health Minister David Clark said he had no plans to review Pharmac. ‘‘The Pharmac model is envied by many other countries,’’ he said.