Cancer Drug Announcement

News today that the Government is expected to announce that Pharmac will receive at least $600 million as part of its pledge to fund 13 new cancer medicines is excellent news, not only for terminally ill cancer patients, but for many of the 330,000 New Zealanders who are waiting for one or more of the 90 medicines on Pharmac’s Options for Investment List. Not only will cancer patients benefit from the funding uplift but so will those with a chronic illness or a rare disorder.

States Chair of Patient Voice Aotearoa, Malcolm Mulholland, “Today’s news will put a significant dent in Pharmac’s waiting list of medicines that they want to fund. This is worth celebrating. I hope that today’s news signals the end of New Zealand being the only country in the world with a waiting list of medicines. Having patients wait for years for a medicine not only leads to poorer health outcomes but is inhumane. It should be to our eternal shame that successive Governments underfunded Pharmac for over two decades which resulted in an ever-growing waiting list of medicines, and consequently, lives either being cut short or living in pain and misery.

“We must remember that there are still over 280 medicines grinding their way slowly through Pharmac’s decision-making process. Even if we were to fund them all, that would still put us around average in the OECD when it comes to medicine access. Governments will have to continue to fund Pharmac adequately, so that as those medicines are approved, they are funded. This would guarantee that New Zealand would no longer be an outcast with the rest of the developed world with a waiting list of medicines that needed funding.

“We must also see through the reform of Pharmac so it is patient-centric, accounts for savings that can be made to the taxpayer by funding medicines, and benchmarks itself with the rest of the OECD when it comes to medicine access. A crucial part of the reform of Pharmac is righting its culture. That can only happen when the CE of Pharmac, Sarah Fitt, is replaced. Terminally ill cancer patients who wrote an open letter calling for her resignation over her dismissive comment about cancer patients dying are still waiting for an apology. They lack confidence in Fitt’s ability to oversee the purchase of cancer drugs for patients when she openly belittled the disease that will end their lives.

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