Breast cancer drug to remain unfunded

Breast cancer treatment drug Herceptin will remain unfunded for those with early stages of the disease, government drug funding agency Pharmac said today.

Pharmac has been criticised over not funding the drug for early stage breast cancer and said further investigations had confirmed their decision.

The drug is subsidised in New Zealand only for late stage Her2 breast cancer.

Pharmac's pharmacology and therapeutics advisory committee (PTAC) said it had further investigated the issue since a controversial decision in July not to fund the drug.

Pharmac deputy medical director Dilky Rasiah said funding Herceptin was expensive and couldn't be justified.

"This is a difficult, but responsible recommendation," he said.

"When funding medicines, we need to be confident that the evidence supports that investment over other medicines Pharmac is evaluating.

"This is particularly important when investments are very large, such as with Herceptin ($20-25 million a year)."

The Australian government recently decided to subsidise Herceptin for early stage breast cancer and advocacy groups in New Zealand have argued it should be the same here.

But a national spokesman for district health boards (DHBs), David Meates, said DHBs agreed with the decision and that the situation was unique here.

"New Zealand is not the same as other countries, we have a different decision framework, different funding structures and have to make our decisions accordingly," he said.

"Pharmac has very clear and robust processes for ensuring that any new DHB spending on pharmaceuticals is justified."

Dr Rasiah acknowledged the difference in stance between here and other countries and said Pharmac put more emphasis on uncertainties in clinical evidence given the cost.

It also considered the drug's cost effectiveness compared to other drugs, and accounted for practical implications for health services of administering the medicine.

Dr Rasiah said Pharmac would continue to review new evidence in relation to Herceptin and PTAC was further exploring the feasibility of using nine weeks of treatment with Herceptin as tested in a recent trial in Finland.

- NZPA