Melanoma patients are likely to get a second drug treatment option under a new proposal to provide state funding of Keytruda.
Pharmac, the Government's drug funding agency, has today issued a consultation document proposing to pay for Keytruda from September 1.
This follows Pharmac's earlier decision to fund Keytruda' rival Opdivo from this Friday. Both are high-cost cancer drugs in a new class of immunotherapy medicines, called PD-1 inhibitors which are extending the lives of some advanced-melanoma patients who have no other treatment options.
Pharmac says in the consultation notice on its website that it has "now reached a commercially favourable provisional agreement" with the maker of Keytruda (pembrolizumab), Merck Sharp and Dohme, and is seeking feedback on the proposal, which also involves two other drugs.
![Keytruda is a prescription medicine used to treat melanoma.](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/ZRRJASE46PXGZWJWNH53PE7I7I.jpg?auth=2a64c4bf6e16bc71b2c04480dcd6fe35f14290fd3bf326444f4a973bfeaf32e3&width=16&height=16&quality=70&smart=true)