It is so important that New Zealanders are able to access new, emerging and effective cancer treatments that are the standard of care in other parts of the world.” – Sir Sam Neill, actor, New Zealander, and stage 3 blood cancer patient, June 2023 For a high-income, developed country, New Zealand has a particularly poor system of...Continue Reading
By Rodger Tiedemann 5 Sep, 2023 05:00 AM OPINION It is distressing to have to tell my cancer patients, in each and every clinic, that effective treatments exist that could significantly extend their lives, but that sadly these treatments are not available in New Zealand. We are not speaking of the latest cutting-edge medicines. Far from it....Continue Reading
The Shawview Report, commissioned by Johnson & Johnson, is a valuable, timely round-up of the inherent problems in our medicines funding system and offers some good solutions, including innovative funding mechanisms in action in other countries, as well as the immediate need to fund Pharmac’s current backlog of approved medicines waiting for funding. If...Continue Reading
Dr Ruth Spearing, a distinguished haematologist and medical researcher with a strong interest in CLL, has been made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to haematology in the King’s Birthday Honours. Dr Ruth Spearing has been a consultant haematologist and taken a lead nationally in haematology trials. She was involved...Continue Reading
New Zealand sits at the bottom of the western world for access to modern medicines. Pharmac decide what drugs we buy and when. So why aren’t Kiwis getting the medicines they need? Listen to Rachel Smalley discuss this topic: Rachel Smalley. NZ’s Shameful Health SecretContinue Reading
It takes the nation’s drug-buying agency, Pharmac, an average of 7.7 years to make funding decisions about potentially life-saving medicines, a report has found. The Pharmac’s Medicines Waiting Lists: Impacts on Patients in Aotearoa New Zealand report, commissioned by lobby group Medicines New Zealand found it took on an average nearly eight years to reach a decision on applications across...Continue Reading
Myeloma New Zealand has started a campaign to press Pharmac into funding a treatment that has been standard-of-care throughout the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for more than five years. Myeloma NZ trustee Nichola Oakenfull has been interviewed for the article, well done Nichola! Here is the RNZ article: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/474629/blood-cancer-patient-charity-campaigns-for-pharmac-to-fund-medicineContinue Reading
MEDIA RELEASE 7 September 2022 New Zealanders living with multiple myeloma, a deadly, relapsing/remitting blood cancer, are mounting a major, evidence-based campaign to press Pharmac into funding a transformative treatment that has been standard-of-care throughout the OECD for more than 5 years. Myeloma patient and trustee of Myeloma NZ Nichola Oakenfull says patients who’ve...Continue Reading
