COMMENT: I always find around the summer holidays there are two quite different, yet equally vivid, realities going on in my head at the same time.

As 2016 draws to a close, the NZ Science Media Centre picked some of the biggest national and international science stories that made headlines

An Auckland mum is petitioning Parliament to give Pharmac more money to fund treatment for rare diseases.

Pharmac announced today it would start funding the breast cancer drug Perjeta, but 160 Kiwis who have already started treatment won't be eligible.

A cancer patient is pleading with the Government to fund treatment for everyone exposed to asbestos.

A young woman with a body riddled with fast growing tumours, who was left in a three-week limbo by Pharmac, has finally got funding for the drug she needs.

For Olivia Fryer, three weeks could be everything but that's how long she's been waiting to find out whether a drug she needs to fight cancer will be funded by Pharmac.

The mother of the first person to get approval to use medicinal cannabis in New Zealand has made an emotional plea to Parliament to make it easier for others to get access to the drug legally.

Otago University scientists have taken a first step towards what could eventually be a Keytruda-type drug to fight cervical cancer. They

Leisa Renwick has told a Parliamentary committee that her fight to get Keytruda funded shows the need for Pharmac to be reformed so desperate patients can access new drugs faster.

After spending $100,000 on drug Keytruda, Deanna Trevarthen's tumours are shrinking and she is preparing for her next fight - to change ACC legislation.

Melanoma patients are likely to get a second drug treatment option under a new proposal to provide state funding of Keytruda.

COMMENT: The cost and availability of expensive new medicines like Keytruda are still at risk from the TPP despite government assurances.

It sounds hollow, hypocritical and heartless every time National says that decisions on funding must be left to Pharmac, writes Audrey Young.

WATCH: Auckland student owes his life to the generosity of strangers, friends and family who raise money for life-saving melanoma drugs.

Patients who have had miraculous results with melanoma drugs will join dying patients and their families to petition Govt to boost funding for Pharmac.

New Zealand is about to have the honour of hosting the formal signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement by trade ministers from 12 nations of the Pacific rim.

In New Zealand we have a love/hate relationship with Pharmac, the agency that decides which drugs our Government will pay for.

Pharmac is possibly the most publicly respected body in this country.

A campaign for state funding of a costly new drug for melanoma has been derailed by a "low priority" ranking at Pharmac.

The price for one year of perfect health for a NZ patient turned out to be $35,714 in Pharmac's funding of new medicines in the last financial year.

Tim Groser has a sales job in front of him after the Trans-Pacific Partnership kept the doors open wide to foreign investment in Auckland's red hot housing market.

Most people will be more than aware that, like all public relations campaigns, this one will not reveal the full picture.

It may be difficult at first for observers to grasp the magnitude of what has happened with the trade liberalisation deal just reached in the TPP.

FRAN O'SULLIVAN: Geneva has the WTO. Brussels hosts the European Union. Will the Trans-Pacific Partnership put Auckland on the map?

The TPP could be improved after a few years, Trade Minister Tim Groser has said, acknowledging NZ lost against powerful forces that limited dairy sector rewards.

New Zealand and 11 other countries strike Pacific trade pact - a deal that will affect 40 per cent of world's economy.

What deals have other countries by signing up to the TPP deal?

OPINION: Trade Minister conceded a few nasty points but his brinksmanship in TPP negotiations allows him to stare down critics, writes Fran O'Sullivan.

An overwhelming number of New Zealanders support the legalisation of cannabis for medicinal use, the latest Herald-DigiPoll survey shows.