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A flood of new medicines due to hit the New Zealand market has sparked a call for changes to the way Pharmac goes about deciding on which ones to fund.
Technological advances in medicine mean many new cancer drugs, and others, will become available here, increasing the pressure on Pharmac in its decision making.
Cancer Society medical director Chris Atkinson said today there were exciting medical advances in terms of drugs being developed to treat cancer and other chronic illnesses
"But they are very expensive. So a little country like New Zealand, with a small number of taxpayers, is always going to be struggling to pay for all of these," he told Radio New Zealand.
Dr Atkinson said Pharmac had generally done a difficult job well, but suggested there needed to be more transparency and that more New Zealanders needed to be included in decision making, rather than leaving it all to Pharmac, which was exposed to public criticism.
"So I guess what the Cancer Society is saying is that we probably need to broaden the debate.
"It's not fair to blame Pharmac and say they are doing a difficult job badly."
He said Finland had employed consumer advocates to help make priority-related decisions surrounding drug funding and suggested such a model could be beneficial in New Zealand.
It meant any debate or criticism about it went back to a wider group rather than just Pharmac.
The National Party has pledged to extend funding for breast cancer treatment drug Herceptin, despite Pharmac having controversially decided against doing so.
Dr Atkinson said the government had gone with evidence whereas Pharmac's decision was more based on economics.
The agency this year spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending a judicial review of its decision.
Dr Atkinson said while New Zealand had a small health budget compared to other countries, more needed to be spent.
"I think we do need to spend more on new innovations, I think we need to spend more on public health."
While the previous government had increased funding in virtually all arenas, more was needed, and a government led think-tank forum was needed to work out how to approach the issue of the influx of new cancer drugs.
Pharmac chief executive Matthew Brougham told The Press new drug treatments had attracted public relations campaigns which tugged at the public's heart strings, and that was likely to intensify.
New cancer drugs were expected to cost $200,000 a year for each patient, which meant it was vital to base funding decisions on evidence rather than public opinion.
- NZPA
