Number of patients to get new pain relief drug 'exaggerated'

1.00pm

Pharmac is being accused of exaggerating the number of patients likely to benefit from a subsidy on a revolutionary form of pain relief.

Fentanyl is seen as an alternative to morphine, previously the 'gold standard' in pain relief.

It will be made available through a subsidy on special authority, which means not everybody will get it.

Jan Trotman, managing director of the drug's manufacturers Janssen Cilag, says Pharmac is wrong to say 3,000 people will benefit from the subsidy.

She says that figure is inflated and puts the figure at between 1,500 and 2,000.

Trotman says the drug is too important to be denied to anybody who might need it.

Pharmac has agreed to spend $3 million a year on fentanyl. It said this week that fentanyl patches will be funded for seriously ill patients who are morphine-intolerant or have difficult swallowing.

Medical director Dr Peter Moodie said the move would give health professionals another way of dealing with patients' pain.

No-one was available at Pharmac today to comment on Janssen Cilag's claims.

- Newstalk ZB, HERALD STAFF