Blood cancer patient Sally Gardiner reacts to the Government's drug funding announcement. Photo / Adam Pearse
Blood cancer patient Sally Gardiner reacts to the Government's drug funding announcement. Photo / Adam Pearse
A blood cancer patient is lauding a “brilliant” proposal from the Pharmac drug-buying agency to fund two new therapies for people with the incurable chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.
The proposal, which is now open for consultation until March 4, would lead to two combination therapies being funded from May thisyear: venetoclax with ibrutinib and venetoclax with obinutuzumab.
If approved, the therapies were estimated to help about 80 people with that type of blood cancer.
Pharmac Minister David Seymour and Health Minister Simeon Brown announced the proposal at the Bowen Icon Cancer Centre in Wellington.
Sally Gardiner, who has chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and attended today’s announcement, said she was relieved to hear a new treatment in pill form would replace taxing chemotherapy.
“My chemo went a bit haywire in the fifth round, I ended up in hospital and was very, very, very sick, I nearly died,” she said.
“Knowing now that it’s just a pill and it’s just, take it at home and hopefully be able to go to work the following day and get rid of all of those nasty side effects of chemo, I think it’s brilliant.
“It’s just that anxiety, that weight off your shoulders of 12 hours in a hospital chair and 10 days in hospital getting spinal taps and all sorts.”
The announcement also included changes to Pharmac’s approach to how it funded treatment for patients already receiving it through the private health system.
Traditionally, patients would have to shift to the public health system to be eligible for funded treatment.
Pharmac had now committed to funding a patient’s treatment in the private system if they had begun treatment before Pharmac agreed to fund it.
Gardiner welcomed the move, saying it would help deal with the “overflow” in the public system.
From left: Act MP Todd Stephenson, Pharmac Minister David Seymour and Health Minister Simeon Brown announce a new drug treatment is funded. Photo / Adam Pearse
Seymour agreed the traditional approach was “archaic”, given it forced those who had paid from their own pocket and created space in the public system, to miss out on their treatment being funded.
“There’s still a question about if you have a medicine that is funded before you start your treatment, should that be funded in a private setting?
“We’re not doing that right now for the simple reason that it would put pressure on Pharmac’s budget and limit the number of medicines that we could fund.
“However, one of the things that we will be working through, as we go through the Budget and in future years, is to make sure that look, if you paid your tax, you’re entitled to your medicines and if you’ve paid extra to have private insurance and actually take pressure off the public system by having them administered in a private clinic such as this, then you shouldn’t lose your access to your medicines.”
Seymour estimated it would cost tens of millions of dollars annually to fund treatment in both public and private.
In 2024, the Government faced backlash for not funding blood cancer treatments as part of its promise to fund 13 new cancer drugs in Budget 24, despite assuring patients they would not be forgotten.
Brown, asked whether the Government had made up for its failed promise, pointed to seven of the Government’s 33 funded drugs which treated blood cancer.
However, neither Brown nor Seymour would address whether they had made it up to the blood cancer community, saying there would always be new treatments being assessed.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon made similar comments when asked today.
“There’s always more for us to do, we’d love to do more, that’s why we’re trying to grow the economy so that we can afford more drugs.”
Blood Cancer NZ head of advocacy Rosie Shaw acknowledged the Government’s promise had been “really difficult” for the community.
“Since then, there has been some progress in funding new medicines, and this is a great example of it but there’s still a lot of work to be done.”
Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald’s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.
