Drug company says patients are learning to live with user-pays

New Zealanders are becoming used to the idea of paying for their own prescription medicines instead of depending on the public health system, research suggests.

When the user-pays medicines market became established within the past decade, it centred on so-called lifestyle drugs such as erection pill Viagra and hair-growth drug Propecia.

It has since expanded to include expensive medicines for diabetes, osteoporosis and other conditions which the Government either will not subsidise or funds for only the sickest patients.

Christchurch diabetes patient Lew McIvor, 63, who owns a newspaper distribution business, pays more than $2000 a year for the drug Avandia. It helps keep his blood-glucose level under control - poor control can cause blindness and kidney damage.

"I think Pharmac should pay for it, or we should get a tax deduction for it," he said last night.

The number of patients who themselves pay for Avandia and another drug in the same group is more than the 1000 who qualify for Pharmac funding, said the managing director and vice-president of GlaxoSmithKline NZ, Lisa Bright.

Glaxo commissioned research by Auckland University which found that of the 1000 people who completed a survey, 87 per cent would be prepared to pay for medicine themselves if it offered them greater benefits than state-paid alternatives.

"The research indicates [the private medicines market] shouldn't be seen as a threat from a political perspective," said Ms Bright.

"Patients recognise that there simply isn't enough money to fund all medicine for all New Zealanders. They are willing and expect to pay for medicines that aren't funded."

She denied the research was linked to Glaxo NZ's 2003 down-sizing - it declared 60 per cent of jobs redundant - and any need to find new markets due to Pharmac's pressure on drug prices.

Glaxo had to decide, she said, whether to withdraw drugs that lost funding. This week she announced it would keep marketing asthma drug Ventolin - but to private payers - after Pharmac stops paying for it on July 1.

The Researched Medicines Industry Association's chief executive, Lesley Clarke, said New Zealand was continuing to fall behind in subsidised access to new medicines.

Australia subsidised on average 30 new medicines a year; Pharmac's best tally in recent years was 15 new products, last year.

In a growing number of cases, she said, international companies simply did not bring new drugs to the country because they knew Pharmac would not fund them and the private market would be too small to be worthwhile.

Health Minister Annette King said Pharmac generally served New Zealand patients well, providing access to a wide range of medicines at an affordable cost to taxpayers.

Asked if it was spending enough on new drugs and widened access, she said its budget, $565 million, was 10 per cent more than last year.

User-pays medicines

* 87 per cent of New Zealanders would pay for medicines considered better than state-funded equivalents.
* 90 per cent expect to hear all options from their GP.
* 97 per cent believe new medicines should be available to buy, if the Government cannot subsidise them for all who may benefit.
Source: GlaxoSmithKline-financed Auckland University postal survey completed by 1000 people.