16 Sep 2025

Cancer patients moving to Australia to access unfunded drugs

From Checkpoint, 4:48 pm on 16 September 2025

Blood cancer patients are being forced to move to Australia to access life prolonging drugs that are not funded in Aotearoa. Daratumumab, or dara, can help prolong the lives of people with the blood cancer myeloma but costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, while it is virtually free in Australia. Jo Neep was diagnosed with Myeloma in 2017 and moved to Australia to access funded Dara treatment, she spoke to Lisa Owen.