A win for terminal cancer patient, Government to amend Therapeutic Products Bill

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

A Gisborne woman living with stage four lung cancer has successfully petitioned the Government to make changes to a proposed law change impacting her chances of survival.

Theresa Zame currently imports medication Tagrix from Bangladesh at a fraction of the cost of an unfunded option in New Zealand.

The drug has not only extended her life, it has also caused her cancer to thin.

But under the original wording of the Therapeutic Products Bill — which is set to replace the Medicines Act 1981 — importing medication from overseas would become illegal.

Zame mobilised, creating a petition which racked up more than 5800 signatures, and marched on Parliament earlier this month.

A Government press statement released on Tuesday afternoon addressed some of those concerns, saying the public had been heard, and the Select Committee would recommend changes to the bill to allow personal importation with appropriate safeguards.

“I know this is a major issue for a number of people and I welcome the proposed changes that will enable New Zealanders to import prescription medicines,” Health Minister Ayesha Verrall said.

Zame said she was “stoked” with the outcome.

“It’s something pretty amazing that we’ve accomplished and it just goes to show that if you speak out, you can make change,” she said.

“People have said ‘oh you must want to celebrate’, but I don’t feel like it’s worth celebrating.

“It shouldn’t have had to take a whole heap of people being advocates for those most vulnerable to make this happen.”

The fight is far from over for Zame, however, who now has her sights set on advocating for increased Pharmac funding.

Patients were dying prematurely because of a lack of access to medication, she said, and “thousands of illnesses” were affected.

Tagrisso, the more expensive version of the drug she currently imports, was one such example, costing $10,000 a month in New Zealand compared to the $1000 she currently pays for a generic version.

“There are so many cancer patients who are dying prematurely because we just don’t have the medications in New Zealand.”

Zame said she couldn’t have predicted her journey “in a million years”.

“Things like this, you don’t have awareness of until it hits you personally.”

The bill has now reached its second reading, having been before the Select Committee for six months.

It was introduced to Parliament in November.