KEY POINTS:
Eight breast cancer patients challenging Pharmac's decision to fund a nine-week course of treatment with Herceptin - rather than a full year's course - want to stop New Zealand participation in a clinical trial comparing the short and long treatments.
Pharmac, the nation's drug-buying agency, has already budgeted $3.2 million towards a short-or-long-duration (Sold) trial of Herceptin in cases of early HER2 breast cancer and started making payments.
In 2006, Pharmac decided not to spend up to $30 million a year to fund 12 months of Herceptin treatment for those with aggressive early breast cancer, deciding instead to spend $5 million a year on nine-week courses for suitable NZ patients.
The eight women - who missed out on Government funding of their own Herceptin treatments and have described themselves as Herceptin Heroines - have asked the High Court at Wellington to quash both decisions, and to reverse the decision not to make special funding available for their own treatment.
But if they succeed in blocking the funding of nine-week courses, it will not only affect women now receiving state-funded Herceptin, but plans to participate in an international clinical trial comparing the long and short duration treatments, which both follow breast surgery.
In May last year, Pharmac announced it would spend $3.2 million on the Sold trial led from Helsinki University.
Justice Warwick Gendall yesterday questioned the legal standing of the eight plaintiffs to stop a trial in which they were not participating. "I need to know how plaintiffs have a legal interest in the continuation or otherwise in the Sold trial," he said.
But the women's lawyer, Helen Cull, QC, said Sold would potentially lead to millions of dollars being spent on the drug for New Zealanders participating in short treatments for the trial. Her clients were concerned some of that would be better spent on long-term treatments of Herceptin.
The plaintiffs needed the court to quash Pharmac's decision to fund short treatments - and the clinical trial - to force it to reconsider 12-month treatments.
Justice Gendall noted that there was always an element of predetermination in health funding, because the available budget would always be a factor in spending.
Ms Cull said Pharmac could have said that it did not want to pay for 12-month treatments because they were too expensive, but had instead argued it could not rely on the clinical data for the longer treatments.
Ms Cull will continue her submissions today.
- NZPA
