KEY POINTS:
Opposition parties have called on the Government to pay for 12-month courses of Herceptin for women with breast cancer, but the Greens say politicians don't have the expertise to made drug-funding decisions.
Pharmac said yesterday a fresh review of scientific and other information had failed to convince it that the longer course offered any additional benefits over the nine-week treatment it has decided to fund.
Health Minister David Cunliffe says he can't lawfully direct Pharmac to fund anything but National is promising there will be 12-month courses if it wins the election.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has described Pharmac's decision as "abominable" and says New Zealand women are being denied treatment which is standard in many other countries.
Act MP Heather Roy said today it was all about money.
"Why could Labour find $25 million to save endangered snails - which weren't endangered - but can't find $25 million to save endangered women?" she asked.
The Green Party's Sue Kedgley said Pharmac's decision would be a bitter blow to many women but politicians should respect Pharmac's independence.
"We can't have politicians intervening to decide which drugs should be funded and which should not," she said.
"Politicians do not have the clinical expertise to make decisions about which drugs to fund. However much we might wish to interfere, we must leave it to the experts to decide."
Pharmac chief executive Matthew Brougham said New Zealanders were fortunate that decision-making on drug funding had been removed from politicians and relied instead on scientific evidence.
"It's not about who can scream the loudest and who can make the most noise," he said.
Mr Brougham said Pharmac remained open to re-evaluating its position if new evidence emerged.
Meanwhile the Researched Medicines Industry Association said the Herceptin decision was yet another confirmation that the system was failing New Zealanders.
"Pharmac is hiding behind clinical issues in order to attempt to justify its refusal to fund Herceptin and other innovative and modern medicines," the association's chairwoman Dr Pippa MacKay said.
"How can the New Zealand population feel confident that Pharmac have got this, and potentially other decisions, right, while everyone else in the OECD has got it wrong?
"This decision is clearly symptomatic of an organisation that is chronically underfunded to do the job they are expected to do.
"Government, DHBs and Pharmac continue to ignore the growing chorus of calls from clinicians and patient groups who had hoped that the new medicines strategy would positively address this issue of transparency, as well as lack of funding."
- NZPA
