Broken Promise
During the 2023 election campaign, National made a commitment to a significant increase in the funding of cancer drugs.
This promise was completely forgotten in Nicola Willis' 2024 Budget but was partly rectified in November due to the ensuing public outcry. At that time Shane Reti, then Minister of Health, stated that 'blood cancers would not be forgotten.'
$151million was allocated to Pharmac in 2024 over 4 years to purchase new cancer drugs. However, blood cancer patients have received hardly any of this. Pharmac predicts only about 180 people with blood cancers per annum will benefit from these changes.
'There are more than 2,000 people in NZ living with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia and about half of whom require treatment at any one time. For most of them there is no treatment alternative to outdated medicines.
Just 15 Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia* patients per annum are expected to benefit from the funding largesse,' said Dr Ruth Spearing, 'and of these 15, 5 approvals are for Bendamustine — a derivative of nitrogen mustard, which was originally developed during WWII and is rarely used in other countries now.'
Dr Spearing said 'This is another stark (and, for many, fatal) broken election promise'.
*CLL
Dr Ruth Spearing,
Haematologist and Trustee of CLL Advocates NZ
CNZM, FRACP, FRCPA
Rob Crozier,
Patient and Trustee of CLL Advocates NZ
Background
New Zealand funds the smallest number of new blood cancer drugs in the OECD and spends less per head of population on drugs when corrected for GDP than ANY other OECD country. This is well below the spending of countries with similar levels of wealth. Not many New Zealanders are aware of this.
Pharmac's lack of funding impacts on the ability of Health NZ to treat patients as the less effective intravenous drugs are funded rather than oral alternatives, leading to lack of spaces to treat patients in infusion centres as well as much less effective outcomes.
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