More medicine funding requested
The Government’s drug-funding agency says it will need more money as the global impact of Covid-19 continues to increase prices and disrupt supply in New Zealand.
It comes as the agency last week was forced to backtrack on funding the highly sought after lung cancer medicine, Keytruda, citing the current climate and uncertainty in its budget for a new investment of that magnitude.
The funding woes come despite a $35 million Government budget boost to cover the increased cost of some medicines already being provided and to widen access to several medicines – including nine cancer treatments. But no new medicines would be funded from that budget uplift, which Pharmac is understood to already have pre-spent a portion of.
Director of operations Lisa Williams said further funding was expected to be required for the 2020/2021 financial year as the price effects and supply disruption of Covid-19 were expected to persist for some time.
The majority of medicines were made overseas and the budget increase to the Combined Pharmaceutical Budget went towards securing supply of funded treatments into New Zealand, Williams said.
It would also support continued funding of medicines used in DHB hospitals and in medicines and devices.
Funding issues saw Pharmac backtrack from its plan to start a commercial competitive process for immune checkpoint inhibitors for lung cancer.
‘‘We had informed the Lung Foundation of our plans and it was included in our annual procurement plan ... however, in the current climate, there is considerable uncertainty around the availability [in the budget] for a new investment of this magnitude.’’
This meant the proposal was put on hold until Pharmac was confident there were sufficient funds to progress the treatment.
In a letter to Pharmac, Lung Foundation New Zealand chief executive Philip Hope said he was absolutely ‘‘gobsmacked’’ the treatment for lung cancer has been put on hold.
It was a blow for patients with lung cancer, who were the most vulnerable to Covid-19, he said.