Breast cancer medicines advocates including BCAC Chair Libby Burgess, and Wiki and Malcolm Mulholland, are quoted in this Stuff article, welcoming the funding of Ibrance for all who need it.
Metavivor Wiki Mulholland tells the NZ Herald how much the funding of Ibrance (palbociclib) for advanced breast cancer means to her and her fellow Metavivors. PHARMAC announced 15 January 2020 that Ibrance will be funded by PHARMAC from 1 April 2020. Manufacturer Pfizer will provide Ibrance free of charge from now until April.
A Medicines NZ report has shown NZ's abysmal rank in access to medicines funding. NZ also came last in pharmaceutical invesment.
Groups representing a range of health groups including BCAC explained the urgent need for funding for important medicines. A united voice was presented. Moving photos of BCAC members and representatives of other groups.
New Zealand’s Breast Special Interest Group (BSIG) has written to the Health Select Committee saying many breast cancer patients who can’t afford to pay for certain medicines themselves have shorter lives and poorer quality of life.
The committee is considering two petitions from Metavivors calling for the funding of two medicines for advanced breast cancer – Ibrance and Kadcyla.
The submission is signed by BSIG group chair Dr Reuben Broom and secretary Dr Sarah Barton, and calls for more money for PHARMAC to give those with breast cancer more treatment options at affordable prices.
A long-awaited and much-campaigned-for national cancer action plan is set to soon be released for public consultation. The plan, which was committed to by Health Minister David Clark during the Cancer Care at a Crossroads Conference in January, aims to address disparities in Kiwis current access to fair and consistent cancer treatment around the country.
Opinion, by Troy Elliott
April 3, 2014 was the worst day of my life. It was the day my wife was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer. A day that now rivals this in emotion is May 30, 2019. On diagnosis, I was told Tracey only had about 12 days to live, then I was told multiple times she may not get through 24 hours. To see my beloved wife go through brain surgery, lung surgery and over 60 rounds of chemotherapy and never once complain is both uplifiting and heartbreaking at the same time.
As the true warrior princess Tracey is, she survived the night, only for us to be told that this time it is inoperable, and the only option is a drug called Kadcyla. This drug is $8,867.63 every three weeks. Earlier in the month, a group of cancer patients and advocates presented petitions on the steps of parliament to MPs from every party. I was one of those advocates. Wednesday June 5 is my wife's second round of Kadcyla. It is also our 19th wedding anniversary. I hope that we have many more, but If I was to rely on Pharmac, I think I would be tragically wrong.
A Marlborough mother who long lobbied for a breakthrough cancer drug to be funded by Pharmac has died.
Emily Stein, 32, has been remembered as "a bright light in the face of adversity" after she died in her Blenheim home on Friday, surrounded by family.
A personal reflection by Stuff journalist Bess Manson: A woman approached me. She apologised for interrupting and hoped she was not speaking out of turn. "A time will come when all this will be a distant memory." It's funny how one simple act like that can have such a profound effect. It got me through the most difficult time of my life.
OPINION, by Duncan Garner:
Dear Jacinda,
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is still being feted abroad, but she needs to turn her attention to a small group of women at home who are dying of breast cancer, argues Duncan Garner. Breast cancer patients protesting outside Parliament last year in an effort to win Pharmac funding for the drug Ibrance.
And that's why I write to you, Jacinda. Yes, to praise you, but now I plead with you to do your job for a small group of dying New Zealanders. They are women, dozens of them, and they have advanced breast cancer. They are mums who don't want to die and they want you to intervene so they can see this Christmas, see their son off to primary school and see their daughter attend her first school ball.
Yes, Jacinda, I'm asking for you to climb all over process and rules and find the miserly $5 million they need as a group to fund drugs such as Ibrance, which may give some of them up to five years of extra time on earth.
