KEY POINTS:
Pharmac's acting chief executive Matthew Brougham today defended the controversial decision not to fund breast cancer drug Herceptin.
Releasing the government drug-funding agency's annual review, Mr Brougham said it was Pharmac's duty to focus on the evidence, not the public relations hype.
"There is not a single Pharmac staff member who, if asked to justify the decision with their hearts, would stand in the way of funding Herceptin. But it is their duty to New Zealand to use their minds."
He said New Zealand spent a total of $40 million a year on pharmaceutical cancer treatments and Pharmac had to look at whether it was justified to spend $25 million of that on Herceptin.
Pharmac's obligation under the law was to generate maximum health benefit from pharmaceutical spending within the funding provided, and funding herceptin would have meant cuts elsewhere, Mr Brougham said.
He also drew attention to the incorrect ways medicines were used in New Zealand, concluding if doctors and patients used medicines more efficiently the health gains would be significant.
He based this on a study done recently by the US-based Commonwealth Fund, which found 2.5 million prescriptions (9 per cent) were incorrectly dispensed each year in New Zealand.
About 50 per cent of people did not take medicines as prescribed, 50 per cent did not get a regular review of medicines they took and a third of patients did not have possible side effects explained to them, the study found.
"This information clearly suggests that significant health gains are being missed because of medicines not being used properly," Mr Brougham said.
To change the situation pharmacists, doctors, Public Health Organisations and other health agencies needed to work together and patients needed to be well-informed, Mr Brougham said.
"While there are good health gains to be made from investing in new medicines, there are potentially even greater gains to be made from properly using the medicines that are already subsidised."
But the review came in with strong criticism from the Research Medicines Industry (RMI).
"Rather than applauding its ability to act within its restricted budget, Pharmac should strenuously object to government and DHB policies that force it to cruelly ration the availability of modern medicines needed by New Zealand patients," RMI chairwoman and GP Dr Pippa MacKay said.
She described Pharmac as a "convenient whipping boy" for the Government and the DHBs.
"Both parties can hide behind Pharmac and let it field the criticism for their parsimonious policies and miserly funding."
Doctors saw Pharmac as budget rather than patient focused, and as a gatekeeper, she said.
"But, really it is Government and the DHBs that force Pharmac to adopt its rigorous refusals to fund some medicines and stringent rationing strategies with others."
- NZPA
