18 Nov 2024

Cancer patient still self-funding life extending drug

From Checkpoint, 5:07 pm on 18 November 2024

A cancer patient relying on the kindness of strangers to fund life extending cancer medication wants to know why he's still waiting for Pharmac to deliver drugs the government committed to funding five months ago. After flip flopping on an election commitment; the government announced a 600 million dollar funding boost for cancer and other medications in June. It said seven of 13 drugs it promised on the election campaign would be covered and the others would be replaced by alternatives. Lung cancer drug Tagrisso or Osimertinib was supposed to be one of the first rolled out. It's a relief for former taxi driver and cancer patient Akhil Chaudhary; he's been funding an average of $1300 a week to buy the drug himself. But Pharmac is yet to make a decision on funding and Akhil is still paying, he spoke to Lisa Owen.