Patients miss out on life-extending drugs in Budget

Saturday, 1 June 2024

No one was hit harder by the Government’s Budget trade-offs than those hearing that promised funding for new cancer drugs was not going to happen.

Thursday’s Budget 2024 included $1.7 billion for national pharmaceutical management agency Pharmac, but this was not enough to fund new drugs that many were hoping for.

Wellington man Toby Fuller has an aggressive form of blood cancer and he was hoping the Government would announce a significant boost in funding that would allow Pharmac to fund drugs he needs.

He said it was disappointing to find out this was not the case, and he was planning to move to Australia where they do fund different types of maintenance chemotherapy medicines.

“It’s just gutting that so many people are going to be left to die or forced to move overseas.”

The 25-year-old was diagnosed with multiple myeloma two years ago and with a life-expectancy of three to four years, time was not a luxury he could afford.

“Not many people live past five years with this disease

“Staying alive is pretty high on my list, so Australia’s a no-brainer if I can move over there.”

Fuller said Australia’s health system had more options that were likely to be effective, and there was more treatment that could get the disease under control and give patients more years of life.

“It would be nice if I could have a career and do some bucket list sort of things,” he said.

“My cancer is pretty aggressive so I have to do some real aggressive induction treatments and a transplant. From there you go on maintenance chemotherapy until that stops working.”

Another problem Fuller had was that he couldn’t get on certain clinical trials because the prerequisite treatments were not funded in New Zealand.

“These can be a way of getting really good remission, even if it doesn’t cure you.”

He said cancer science and treatments were evolving fast in places like the United States and Japan.

“It is annoying when you see people doing so well over there when you know it’s not going to happen here.”

Fuller said it was hard for doctors in New Zealand who knew there were treatment options that weren’t available to their patients.

“Doctors feel hamstrung about what they can do for people, which a lot of them struggle with.”

Oncologist Dr Chris Jackson said it was “weird” for the National Party to promise certain drugs, as it would have required a special legislative mechanism to compel Pharmac to make those particular choices.

“A lot of patients are going to feel quite shocked and let down as a result of the fact that the drugs that they feel they were promised weren’t delivered.”

At an estimated cost of $280 million over four years, the Government would have needed to find the money for the additional funding in the Budget, Jackson said.

“Other elements they did fund such as the landlord tax cuts for example, were to a much greater extent.

“There were certainly choices and trade-offs to be made, but I don’t think it would have been impossible for them to have delivered on that promise in this Budget.

He had patients asking him every day whether certain drugs were likely to be funded soon.

“They’re saying to me ‘Should I hold off and wait, should I pay for it now, should I re-mortage the house or cash in my Kiwisaver, or go onto Givealittle in order to fund this drug’,” he said.

The drugs outlined by the National Party pre-election would help people “live better and live longer”, Jackson said.

“Barely any of them were drugs that would cure patients.”

Bowel Cancer New Zealand general manager Rebekah Heal said it was disappointing the budget revealed no new cancer drugs will be funded for at least another year.

“This is a devastating blow for so many in our cancer community who potentially don't have a year they can wait.”

Heal said that the National Party had signalled funding pre-election of 13 new cancer drugs, including cetuximab, a medicine desperately needed by many bowel cancer patients, would be prioritised.

“This is a failure by successive governments, as there have been no new bowel cancer drugs funded in over 20 years.

“We were told during the election campaign that 'no New Zealander would need to set up a Givealittle page or mortgage their home to fund the drugs'. And yet that is exactly what bowel cancer patients will have to continue to do.”