Liam Dann breaks down the Budget for you. Video / NZ Herald
Gill Ripley is self-funding Keytruda for her breast cancer, not covered by Pharmac.
Budget 2024 extends free breast screening, but lacks funding for 13 new cancer drugs.
Cancer Society calls for urgent reform to improve NZ’s low OECD medicine access ranking.
A cancer patient is disappointed with a lack of funding for new medicines in Budget 2024, and expects it will be years until the drug that helped her stay alive is funded by Pharmac.
National campaigned on funding, from this year, 13 cancer treatments available in Australia, but thesewere not announced as part of Budget 2024.
Gill Ripley is paying for the immunotherapy drug Keytruda to treat her breast cancer.
The drug is not one of the 13 cancer medicines identified by National, but the fact that even those have not been funded makes Ripley believe there’s little hope access to Keytruda or other vital drugs will be funded any time soon.
“It is probably a really long way down the list. So Keytruda will not be available for breast cancer patients in New Zealand for many years to come. It is really disappointing.”
Ripley was positive about another initiative funded in Budget 2024 - the extension of free breast screening to women up to age 74. The current free screening age range is 45 to 69.
This will be in a staged approach and require $24 million in operational funding over the next four years and a further $7.2m in capital funding over 10 years. An extra 40,000 mammograms will be able to be done each year, once fully implemented.
A pre-announced increase to Pharmac’s budget of $1.774 billion over four years won’t result in many new medicines being funded. Instead, that money is needed to ensure Pharmac can keep funding the drugs and therapies it already covers.
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti blamed a “fiscal cliff” left by the previous government.
“We have prioritised this essential investment and anticipate that future Budgets will help widen medicine access, including to cancer treatments.”
National’s pre-election manifesto said funding the 13 new cancer drugs would cost $280m over the next four years.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis said her Government was committed to expanding access to cancer drugs and was disappointed the 13 new drugs couldn’t be funded from Budget 2024.
“We regret that it hasn’t been possible in this Budget.”
Finance Minister Nicola Willis with, from left, Christopher Luxon, Chris Bishop, Shane Jones, David Seymour and Winston Peters, on the way to the House for the reading of Budget 2024. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Government ‘kicks medicines crisis down the road’: Breast Cancer Foundation
Ah-Leen Rayner, chief executive of Breast Cancer Foundation NZ, said the extension to free breast screening is “excellent news”.
“However, the lack of funding for new cancer drugs leaves some breast cancer patients in an untenable situation while the Government kicks the medicines crisis down the road.
“There are breast cancer drugs that Pharmac has assessed to be necessary and will fund if it has enough money.
“Without a substantial increase to Pharmac’s budget, women are still denied access to these essential treatments. This is not a problem that can be put off for another day or another Budget – we need to see urgent investment and transformational change.”
The Cancer Society of New Zealand welcomed the $1.7b boost to Pharmac’s budget but said significantly more investment and reform was needed.
“This secures funding for currently funded medicines, but doesn’t provide any potential for growth,” says Cancer Society chief executive Dr Rachael Hart.
“We need ambitious reform, including reform of the Pharmac funding model, to ensure timely access to medicines. Currently New Zealand sits at the bottom of the OECD in terms of our access to medicines.
“Associate Health Minister David Seymour has indicated he wants to move from back to the front of the pack. Cancer Society wants to engage in a collective and robust conversation about how to achieve this.”
Gill Ripley and her family paid for Keytruda to help treat her triple negative breast cancer. She and her husband Rod Skipp are photographed with their boys, Sammy Skipp, 9, and Joseph Skipp, 5. Photo / supplied
$100,000 for a crucial breast cancer drug
Ripley discovered a lump while breastfeeding her youngest child, two days before her 45th birthday. She was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in June 2023, a subtype that’s more aggressive and harder to treat.
The immunotherapy drug Keytruda can stop the cancer from progressing or returning. It is funded in some overseas countries, including Australia and the United Kingdom, but not in New Zealand.
Ripley’s father had life-savings that he gave to pay for her Keytruda, which with treatment fees will cost about $100,000.
Originally from the UK, Ripley moved here with her Kiwi husband four years ago.
“We’ve set up our life here now and it’s not really an option for us to move back to the UK, but sometimes I question whether we should’ve moved when I think about the money I have to put towards my treatment.”
Keytruda for advanced triple negative breast cancer is on Pharmac’s “options for investment list”, which means the drug-buying agency wants to fund it, but does not have the budget available presently. About 350 women could benefit from the drug each year.
There are about 140 medicines or therapies on the list, which is ranked confidentially.
Ripley, a musician, has also had chemotherapy, radiation and a mastectomy, and will remain on Keytruda until August.
“I feel so fortunate, they have thrown everything at it, and they hope to cure me.”
She worries for those who cannot afford Keytruda, and hopes New Zealand can properly increase its spending on medicines, which is currently less than a third of what other developed countries spend, after accounting for population size and GDP.
“I feel it is not very appropriate to use drug access as a kind of political football. Because it is people’s lives.”
