Herceptin petition ready as clock ticks for patients

Anne Hayden

Breast cancer patient Anne Hayden will present her petition calling for wider state funding of Herceptin tomorrow - three weeks after paying for her first dose of the $127,000 drug.

The 17,000-signature petition, to be presented to Parliament, increases the pressure on the Government to expand access to the high-cost medicine.

Medical groups, patients and the opposition have been pressing for this since trial results last year showed the drug can save lives and reduce cancer recurrence.

Agreeing to the proposal could add $30 million a year to the Government's $47 million cancer drugs budget.

Breast Cancer Advocacy Coalition chair Libby Burgess said months could elapse before medicine-buying agency Pharmac decided whether to commit the extra money needed, but women needing the drug could not afford to wait that long.

"Time is of the essence for the many women who have completed or are completing their standard chemotherapy and have a limited window of opportunity to begin Herceptin."

Ms Hayden, 57, of Devonport, Auckland, said last night she paid more than $9000 for her first dose of Herceptin 2 weeks ago. The whole course would cost around $127,000. She and husband David had scrapped a planned five-week trip to Europe and increased the mortgage on their home to pay for the drug.

Ms Hayden, who had a mastectomy, breast-reconstruction surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy before starting Herceptin, said someone had to start a petition.

"I had read so many stories of women begging for money for their treatment and I had just had enough. I had been waiting for someone else to start a petition. No one did, so I had to."
Last month, Pharmac took a first look at funding Herceptin for women in the early stages of so-called HER2-positive breast cancer - it is already state-funded for those with terminal disease - but one of its committees raised safety concerns, mystifying doctors and cancer groups.

Next week, the Ministry of Health's medicines safety authority Medsafe will announce whether Herceptin's licence will be extended to include early cancer. If so, Pharmac will resume funding deliberations, but can give no idea how long they may take.

"It can be short, it can be long - because there's a lot of issues that have to be looked at," said Pharmac's medical director, Dr Peter Moodie.

"We're processing this with all due speed," he said.

More than 2000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in New Zealand each year and around 600 die from the disease. HER2-positive breast cancer is an aggressive form of the disease that responds poorly to chemotherapy. Around a quarter of breast cancer cases are HER2 positive.

Trials have shown that women with early HER2 breast cancer who are treated with Herceptin are about 50 per cent less likely to die or suffer a cancer recurrence than those who receive standard treatment.

If Herceptin's licence is extended, a Pharmac cancer sub-committee will assess the drug. If it gives the green light, its recommendation will go to an advisory committee. Based on that report, Pharmac would negotiate with the drug's supplier, Roche, over price and then seek health-sector consultation ahead of a board decision.