…this is a disgraceful decision…
As we said earlier in the day, Pharmac’s decision to once again decline funding for a 12 month course of the breast cancer drug Herceptin is nothing short of a disgrace. The fact that it continues to deny New Zealand women an internationally standard treatment that is available in virtually every other OECD country is shameful, and yet another example of the public being let down by our drug buying agency.
August 14th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
As I understand it, there are these factors:
* the available evidence indicates that the currently funded 9-week program is no less effective than the 12-month one
* trying alternate drugs faster means more people get better, so it is better for patients to not have the longer course
* this is an operational decision by Pharmac, whose decisions should not be made reflexively but based on evidence. Has anyone with credentials put up a referenced challenge to the decision?
August 23rd, 2008 at 10:09 am
By the way i am not Sam Vilain.
But of course we can get strawberry, chocolate and banana flavoured condoms.
We could get Herceptin for 12 months if then government got rid of some of Pharmac’s “managers”.
November 14th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
lol very true Sam :))