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
A Waikato police officer has been told to consider a move to Australia to treat his cancer. Will Hamilton was diagnosed with blood cancer multiple myeloma in November 2022, a day after he and his partner Amber found out they were pregnant with their second child. Read the full article here: Father of two told...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
The silken ropes holding 26 pearls around Jacq Dwyer’s neck are a beautiful reminder of her victory over a devastating illness, but one she will fight for the rest of her life. Dwyer is well known in South Taranaki as an advocate for her Pātea community, a historian, author, a cancer survivor and baker of...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
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
OPINION: How long does it take you to make a decision about whether or not to buy something? You’ve got all the information in front of you. You know it’s a good product. It works. You need it. And you’ve got the money to buy it. So how long will it take? What if I said...Continue Reading
MEDIA RELEASE DOCTOR CALLS ON MINISTER LITTLE TO RELEASE ‘BURIED’ INDEPENDENT REPORT ON PHARMAC The final report of the Independent Pharmac Review Panel has been sitting with Health Minister Andrew Little since February, with no reason offered for why it has not been released, says Myeloma NZ Chief Executive Dr Ken Romeril. “Given the damning...Continue Reading
