PHARMAC’s 9 week Herceptin trial offer ‘cheap and unethical’

The Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition (BCAC) condemned PTAC’s recommendation that PHARMAC fund a 9 week course of Herceptin as cheap, unethical and ‘throwing New Zealand women a few crumbs’ while 23 other OECD countries ensure their women receive a full 12 month funded course.

Commenting today on the PTAC announcement, BCAC Chair Libby Burgess said, ‘PHARMAC wants to offer New Zealand women with an aggressive form of breast cancer this unproven, cut-price regime while women in Australia, Canada, the UK and 20 other OECD counties are gaining the benefits of a proven 52 week course.’

The 9 week offer is based upon a small Finnish trial (FinHer) involving 232 patients, half of whom received Herceptin. The 12 month regime is based upon several large international trials involving over 12,000 women. ‘The data showing the survival benefits of 12 months of Herceptin is rock solid,’ said Ms Burgess. ‘The FinHer trial was just too small to demonstrate any such benefits but PHARMAC wants to use this regime simply because it is cheap. This is not an evidence-based recommendation and demonstrates the hypocrisy of PHARMAC’s previous statements that they were waiting for solid published survival data.’

PHARMAC also intends to invest $3.2 million in a clinical trial comparing the two regimes. Half the participants will unknowingly be given what National’s Associate Health spokeswoman, Dr Jackie Blue, calls the ‘pot luck, fingers-crossed option’ of 9 weeks of treatment while the other half will be given a full 12 months of Herceptin. ‘This would be considered unethical in most developed countries,’ said Ms Burgess. ‘It will take years to gather enough data to determine whether these women have been unnecessarily sacrificed.’

Next week PTAC will consider the HERA data published in The Lancet in January showing the clear survival benefits of the 12 month treatment regime. ‘We can only hope they will decide to fund this effective treatment for New Zealand women,’ said Ms Burgess, ‘and not try to fob us off with either an unproven cut-price regime or an unethical experiment.’

ENDS

© Scoop Media