Advocates of cancer patients say Pharmac is now “on notice” to deliver the 26 Government-funded cancer treatments in a timely fashion in light of the public uproar caused when the Government’s cancer policy was delayed.
The challenge comes amid widespread celebration of the Government’s promise to spend more than $642 million over four years to purchase and deliver 26 cancer treatments alongside 28 non-cancer-related medicines, estimated to help 175,000 people in the first year.
It has come after weeks of uncertainty and anguish from patients and advocacy organisations after National’s promise to fund 13 specific cancer drugs was absent from this year’s Budget.
“The idea that 175,000 Kiwis will benefit can only be good news,” Patient Voice Aotearoa chairman Malcolm Mulholland said.
Breast Cancer Foundation chief executive Ah-Leen Rayner welcomed the funding as “simply incredible”, noting Health Minister Dr Shane Reti’s commitment that some of the medicines would address breast cancer.
Both Mulholland and Rayner said the matter was now with Pharmac. Mulholland said some patients would feel cautious, referencing instances when drugs had taken a decade to be delivered.
Rayner believed Pharmac had been put “on notice” through the country’s reaction to National not initially fulfilling its campaign promise and was confident the drug-buying agency would appreciate the need to act quickly.
In a statement, Pharmac chief executive Sarah Fitt said “a lot of work” happened behind the scenes so the agency was “ready to go” once funding was available.
“The next step for Pharmac involves working through the medicines on its Options for Investment (OFI) list to determine which medicines to progress. It will then begin negotiating with suppliers, and consulting publicly.”
Reti, making the announcement alongside Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Pharmac Minister David Seymour yesterday, said the first of the drugs - particularly those administered orally - would be available from October. Reti estimated most of the 54 medicines would be available in the 12 months after that.
Mulholland questioned why it would take more than a year to access the drugs if the funding was available: “All you’re doing is killing time that patients don’t have.”
However, he did acknowledge delays could come through Pharmac’s efforts to negotiate bundle deals with drug companies.
Luxon told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking he rejected claims he backtracked, explaining the late announcement for cancer drugs was always the plan.
“Yeah it’s a different process, yeah we got in there in a different way… this will hopefully give people some hope,” Luxon said.
He said the decision he originally looked at involved going outside Pharmac to bring in the 13 new drugs but ultimately decided it was essential to go through them.
Purchasing the drugs would cost $604m over the next four years - $108m this financial year, $146m in 2025/26 and $175m for each of the following two years. The money was a pre-commitment against next year’s Budget.
An additional $38m would also be spent delivering the treatments this year. Delivery costs for the following three years hadn’t been established.
The cancer medicines funded would treat cancer of the lung, liver, skin, bowel, kidney, head and neck, and bladder. The Government has also promised some of the drugs would combat breast and blood cancers.
The 28 non-cancer-related drugs would address a range of conditions likely to include infections, respiratory conditions, osteoporosis, sexual health, dermatology, inflammatory conditions, and mental health.
The spend was double what National proposed in 2023 as it promised to fund 13 specific cancer medicines for $280m over four years.
Reti said up to seven of those 13 drugs would be funded in this package with the remaining six to be replaced by a medicine of equal or greater value to patients. That was a departure from what Reti said last week when he committed to funding the same 13 drugs.
Mulholland didn’t think the policy change was an issue. However, he said it wouldn’t be easy convincing anxious cancer patients spending thousands on effective treatments that the new drugs would work.
Communication had been at the centre of the Government’s failings with its policy. While Luxon didn’t personally apologise, he acknowledged the Government’s communication regarding the policy’s progress hadn’t been sufficient.
Rayner said the public backlash had partially informed the inflated spend. She also believed the Government had recognised the need for New Zealand to reduce the number of medicines on Pharmac’s waitlist.
It wasn’t yet clear where the Government would find the $642m, which was in addition to Pharmac’s overall budget of almost $6.3 billion.
Luxon said it would be found through the Government’s ongoing exercise to cut public spending, something echoed by Seymour.
“We’re going to have to be relentless on finding ways to [spend] smarter, cheaper, faster right across the board, so we can afford things like more medicines for sick people.”
When funding was found to be absent from this year’s Budget, the Government scrambled to respond to those outraged by the apparent broken promise.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis was among the first to confirm the policy would be honoured within the year, but it appeared ministers had differing views on how best to do that, given Pharmac’s model relied on independent decision-making.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said the Government’s revised policy was “more sensible”, but criticised Luxon for not apologising.
“The one word you didn’t hear from Christopher Luxon in his post-Cabinet press conference [yesterday] was ‘sorry’. Sorry for the anguish that his Government has created for cancer sufferers up and down the country while they waited for the Government to get its act together and deliver on a very clear promise that they made to those suffering from cancer at the last election.”
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson, who last week revealed she’d been diagnosed with breast cancer, welcomed the funding and called for more focus on cancer treatment inequities.
“Māori are 80% more likely than non-Maori to die from cancer. Māori women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with, and die from, cervical cancer than Pākehā women.
“When Māori women’s access to cervical cancer screening is well behind other groups, we must ensure any increases in resourcing for screening [are] rolled out equitably, and consider the needs of whānau Māori.”
Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the NZ Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.
The Resources Minister came to the select committee sporting a Make NZ Great Again hat.