Blood cancer doctors urge Government: Don’t break drug promise to our patients

More pressure has come on the Government over Pharmac funding as an alliance of haematologists and health groups write to the Prime Minister and health ministers, urging them to honour a pre-election promise to the 21,000 Kiwis with blood cancers.

The open letter has been sent to Christopher Luxon, Dr Shane Reti, and Associate Health Minister David Seymour.

The letter is co-signed by 50 haematologists (doctors specialising in blood-related disease) working at all major hospitals, and patient advocacy groups Leukaemia & Blood Cancer NZ, Myeloma NZ, and Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia Advocates NZ.

“In recent days, various Ministers of the Government have given positive reassurance to the public that the Budget Day omission on cancer medicines funding will be put right and the Government will deliver on its promises with urgency,” states the letter, shared before its publication today with the Herald.

Simon Clark with his daughter Eleanor. Simon has the common blood cancer, multiple myeloma, but the drugs he needs to stay alive are not funded by Pharmac.

“We thank you for that commitment. However, in the media furore surrounding these announcements, a re-commitment from the Government to ensure equitable progress in medicines access for blood cancer patients, alongside solid tumour patients, was unfortunately forgotten.

“We ask that you honour your pre-election commitment to all cancer patients across New Zealand – specifically including blood cancer patients – so that they are not left behind.”

The open letter comes after the Government last week failed to confirm funding for new cancer drugs, as part of Budget 2024. In the lead-up to the election National had campaigned on funding 13 cancer treatments available in Australia, covering lung, liver, bowel, kidney, bladder, head and neck and skin cancers.

When announcing the policy, Reti told the country’s 21,000 blood cancer patients that “we have not forgotten you”, and they were excluded only because the Cancer Control Agency needed to complete more analysis.

“We are sending out a signal to the people with myeloma and the people with leukaemia, we understand, we haven’t forgotten you, we just need that piece of work to be done by the Cancer Control Agency,” Reti said.

That work is now almost complete – the agency is expected to provide its advice by the end of this month.

Auckland City Hospital haematologist Dr Rodger Tiedemann, who signed the open letter and is an associate professor in medicine at the University of Auckland’s Leukaemia and Blood Cancer Research Unit, said there was a huge gap in the funding of blood cancer medicines.

“As haematologists, we feel compelled to speak up on this important commitment made to our patients that has fallen silent.”

Tim Edmonds, chief executive of Leukaemia & Blood Cancer NZ, said blood cancer patients were told they wouldn’t be forgotten, and have been waiting and watching to be remembered.

“We are speaking up on behalf of all blood cancer patients to seek reassurance from Government that these commitments will be honoured.”

Last Thursday’s Budget increased funding to Pharmac by $1.774 billion over four years. However, that won’t result in many new medicines being funded. Instead, that money is needed to ensure Pharmac can keep funding the drugs and therapies it already covers.

Reti has blamed a “fiscal cliff” left by the previous government, saying, “We have prioritised this essential investment and anticipate that future Budgets will help widen medicine access, including to cancer treatments.”

National’s pre-election manifesto estimated funding the 13 new cancer drugs would cost $280m over the next four years.

Following a strong backlash to its failure to announce the funding in Budget 2024, Luxon on Tuesday said the Government is aiming to make an announcement on funding cancer drugs “very shortly”. Improving cancer treatments was a “top five goal” for the coalition government, the Prime Minister said.

The Government has faced strong criticism after failing to fund new cancer drugs as part of Budget 2024. Photo / Mark Mitchell

“It has required more time than we anticipated and we’re just working out the best way to procure those treatments,” he said.

New Zealand is more than a decade behind other developed countries in terms of funded blood cancer drugs, which results in premature death and disability.

Pharmac has included a number of drugs on its “options for investment” list, which means it wants to fund them but doesn’t yet have the money needed. There are about 140 medicines or therapies on the list, which is ranked confidentially.

A series of Herald articles this year have highlighted the lack of funded medications for people with multiple myeloma, which is a common blood cancer. One retired GP sold his family home to fund the drugs he needed. The family of another patient, Simon Clark, collects aluminium cans to sell as scrap to try to fundraise.

Nicholas Jones is an investigative reporter at the Herald. He was a finalist for Reporter of the Year at the 2024 Voyager Media Awards, and has won numerous national media awards for his reporting and feature writing.