Ministers announced the Government’s $604 million health budget to honour a National pre-election promise. Video / Mark Mitchell
An Auckland breast cancer patient who needs to pay $175,000 for her treatment is hopeful that a Pharmac funding boost will cover her life-extending medicine.
Maggie Ngatai, 45, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer in 2020. After being given the all-clear in 2021, the cancer returned a year later and is now incurable.
Ngatai is holding out hope the drug Trastuzumab deruxtecan, better known as Enhertu, would be funded as part of a $600 million funding boost announced today by the Government.
Ministers committed today to funding 26 new cancer treatments. That will include unspecified breast cancer treatments, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti said.
The funding boost for Pharmac will cover seven of the 13 cancer drugs which the National Party promised to find during the election campaign, with the others replaced by “alternatives just as good or better”, Reti said.
Breast cancer patient Maggie Ngatai of Auckland with her daughters Claudia and Roxanne.
Enhertu is not currently funded in New Zealand and costs $175,000 for the first year of treatment.
“The way the doctors talk about this drug, it’s the new miracle treatment and if I can get the money for it, it’s what will give me hope,” Ngatai said.
“I don’t like thinking about prognoses and percentages, but I’ve hung on to the fact my oncology team has said they want to throw everything they’ve got at this disease.
“There’s a chance for me to have longer with my girls, and I want to fight for that chance.”
Ngatai has been forced to self-fund her treatment and changed what she called a private journey to something public, that has also taken away from “the health and healing” part of the journey.
However, she said others in her position did not have the same support system.
“[Enhertu] is not accessible to people - both financially and physically,” she said.
“They may not have the resources to set up a Givealittle Page or have friends, colleagues and whānau support them like I did.
“I know there are people out there doing it on their own and don’t have the support systems around them to even start thinking about being able to fund something like this.”
According to the Breast Cancer Foundation New Zealand, one in nine New Zealand women would be affected by the disease in their lifetimes.
Chief executive Ah-Leen Rayner said: “It is fantastic news for Kiwis with cancer and we’re excited Minister Reti mentioned breast cancer will be included.
“We don’t know what this means yet but we’re desperately hoping we, and these patients, can have some certainty soon,” she said.
“There are two breast cancer drugs that would make a massive difference and have the same or higher clinical benefit as the ones the Government had campaigned on – we will keep pushing so that women can have these treatments that will give them longer or better lives.”
