Pharmac announced on Friday it would be funding four new medications for people with types of breast and lung cancer. Photo: 123rf
A woman who has gained access to a new cancer drug after Pharmac removed restrictive eligibility criteria says it means she no longer has to put a price on time.
Pharmac announced on Friday it would be funding four new medications for people with types of breast and lung cancer, and two respiratory conditions, and removed some of the eligibility criteria it had specified when the funding was first proposed.
Maggie Ngatai, who has incurable breast cancer, had been trying to raise $175,000 for Enhertu (also called T-Dxd), which doctors told her would give her the best chance of extending her life.
When Pharmac announced a consultation in September to fund the drug from 1 January 2025, Ngatai would not have been eligible, as she had previously tried the treatment called Kadcyla (also called trastuzumab emtansine or T-DM1).
"That was sort of the last hope, really," Ngatai said. "The fact that it was put on the table and then taken off the table was very difficult."
But now, Pharmac had removed that criteria - although Ngatai said she would not fully believe it until the medicine was right in front of her.
The news had come as a huge relief, she said.
"Before, there was that balance of what is time worth? And now, that's taken that stress away somewhat."
The Breast Cancer Foundation had submitted evidence during Pharmac's consultation period arguing that there was strong clinical trial evidence to show that Enhertu was highly effective for people who had tried Kadcyla and gotten worse, and asked Pharmac to remove that restriction.
Chief executive Ah-Leen Rayner said the drug was "incredible" - one element of it blocked the growth and spread of cancer, and another which destroyed the cells through chemotherapy.
"It's a powerful drug," she said. "Rarely have we seen doctors so excited by the potential of a new medicine."
Pharmac's director of pharmaceuticals Geraldine MacGibbon said about 120 people would benefit from trastuzumab deruxtecan in the first year of funding.
One in nine New Zealand women were affected by breast cancer at some point in their lives, and around 16 percent of metastatic breast cancers were classified as HER2-positive, which meant they had the potential to grow and spread faster than other breast cancers.
The full list of drugs set to be funded:
- Osimertinib (branded as Tagrisso) for people with a type of advanced non-small cell lung cancer
- Trastuzumab deruxtecan (branded as Enhertu) for people with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer
- Palivizumab (branded as Synagis) to prevent RSV in high-risk babies and young children
- Budesonide, glycopyrronium and formoterol triple inhaler (branded as Breztri Aerosphere) for people with chronic obstrutive pulmonary disease (COPD)
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