BCAC’s new Metavivors NZ group is pushing to see the chemotherapy drug, Abraxane, funded so that women with secondary breast cancer no longer have to pay privately for it.
BCAC recently helped to set up the Metavivors NZ group for women with advanced breast cancer to advocate for better treatment, support and care for this group.
The term ‘Metavivor’ refers to women who are living and thriving with secondary breast cancer and recognises that many women can live for years with metastatic cancer.
There is a strong ‘Metavivor’ movement in the United States where women with secondary breast cancer are extremely vocal about the need for research into advanced breast cancer.
Wellington woman, Larissa Garnett, has been diagnosed with advanced breast cancer and is a member of Metavivors NZ.
She’s had to receive Abraxane, in part because she had a toxic reaction to alternative drugs docetaxel and paclitaxel, so the fact that it’s not publicly funded is a personal issue for her.
“I’d like to see PHARMAC fund this drug not simply because of my own personal situation, but because it’s a less toxic medicine than the alternatives. It takes less time to administer and has fewer side effects so patients ultimately benefit,” Larissa says.
BCAC is also strongly advocating for Abraxane to be fully funded, as are New Zealand breast cancer specialists. A group of New Zealand physicians working in the area of breast cancer, The Breast Cancer Special Interest Group (BCSIG), has also written to PHARMAC asking it to consider fully funding Abraxane.
Larissa is also pushing for GST charges on privately administered medicines to be dropped. At the moment, if you pay for a medicine privately then you will have to also pay GST on that medicine.
Larissa says: “I feel very strongly that if the Government does not fund a medication, then it should not be gaining a financial benefit by charging GST on it. This penalises people who have absolutely no control over the situation they find themselves in.
“I understand that PHARMAC can only fund so much, but it appears that if you fall into a minority category and your medications are not funded you are doubly penalised with the GST charge,” Larissa says.
She’s written to the Ministers of Health and Revenue about this matter and BCAC has also raised the matter of GST charges on unfunded medicines with the Minister of Health. BCAC is now writing to the Minister of Revenue to ask him to review the matter.
If you’d like to join the Metavivors NZ group, please contact BCAC and we’ll put you in touch.
If you’d like to find out more about the metavivor movement in the United States, check out www.metavivor.org
