New Zealanders denied access to medicines
30 October 2007

"The RMI endorses the recommendation adopted by the National Breast Cancer conference calling for better access to cancer drugs and greater consumer participation and consultation in the drug funding process" says Dr Pippa MacKay, Chairman of the Researched Medicines Industry Association.

"PHARMAC's job is to ration the supply of medicines and with their severe funding constraints patients are inevitably going to be denied access to new medicines. Since its inception, the number of prescriptions filled has almost doubled . Yet, when inflation is taken into account, its funding has remained static," she said.

"We know that only a quarter of the medicines approved for use in New Zealand are ever likely to receive a subsidy, and those medicines that are funded are largely older generic versions. Generally New Zealanders are denied access to the new innovative medicines that are widely available in other OECD countries."

The recommendation from last weekend's Breast Cancer Conference underscores the importance of a New Zealand Medicines Strategy which is due for release prior to Christmas.

"Patient groups, clinicians and the industry have high hopes that the Strategy will result in more and newer medicines being made available to meet New Zealanders health needs. We have high expectations that the strategy will deliver a significant change in direction with greater funding and more transparency in the decision making processes" Dr Pippa MacKay concluded.

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