KEY POINTS:
Pharmac's decision to subsidise two new HIV drugs is pleasing but delays over funding may have shortened some sufferers' lives, the New Zealand Aids Foundation says.
The medicines, Tenofovir (Viread) and Emtricitabine (Emtriva), will be subsidised from April 1.
Pharmac medical director Peter Moodie said the investment would cost about $1.5 million over five years and up to 159 HIV patients would be eligible for treatment within three years.
Tenofovir and Emtricitabine were similar to other subsidised drugs but funding them was important because HIV could become resistant to existing treatments.
Tenofovir also had fewer side-effects for some patients.
Foundation positive health manager Eamonn Smythe said the drugs had been available in Australia for some time but delays involving funding here - specifically for Tenofovir - had meant patients had been unable to access them.
HIV was a complex virus that changed rapidly and new medications, once tested and approved, needed to be made available to sufferers quickly. "Delays of this kind can affect the quality of life, and even life expectancy, of HIV-positive patients," he said.
The foundation estimates just over 2000 people here have HIV and the pool is increasing, especially among gay and bisexual men.
"Some 177 new diagnoses were recorded in 2006, the second-highest number for a single year."
- NZPA
