Media release
Cancer drug funding a challenge – PHARMAC
Planning and budgeting for new cancer treatments provides one of PHARMAC’s biggest challenges for the future, says
PHARMAC’s Medical Director Dr Peter Moodie.
Writing in the government drug funder’s 2005 Annual Review, Dr Moodie says funding for new cancer drugs is already
provoking discussion and some difficult decisions lie ahead in coming years.
PHARMAC figures show that spending on cancer drugs funded from the community pharmaceutical budget has grown from just
over $1 million three years ago, to nearly $12 million in 2005. This makes it one of the fastest-growing areas of
expenditure, and some new and expensive treatments are also under consideration.
DHB hospitals already have a list of cancer drugs (the oncology “basket”) which they are required to fund to enable
national consistency. Work is underway on a strategy to have assessment and funding of new pharmaceutical cancer
treatments managed by PHARMAC. The aim is to continue national consistency of access to new cancer treatments and
streamline the process for adding new drugs.
“Although this is undoubtedly a sensible move it is already bringing into sharp focus two issues,” writes Dr Moodie.
“The first is that the newer oncology drugs are often extremely expensive; often in the range (and sometimes greater
than) $50,000 per year per patient. A new treatment for a type of brain cancer (temozolomide) or another for breast
cancer (trastuzumab) are examples.
“If we are to make these treatments available then it is essential that we budget for them, or make savings in other
areas.
“The second and more important issue is that these drugs will force us to come to wise decisions about where our
priorities lie. Although we may have our views about the science of economics, it is simply put, an attempt to allocate
scarce resources in a fair way.”
“If we have to choose, let’s do it in a way everyone can understand.”
Dr Moodie says transparency in the decision-making is important so that people understand the decision, even if they
don’t agree with it.
ENDS