Row over price of cancer drug angers patients

By FRANCESCA MOLD and CATHERINE MASTERS

More than 30 patients with a rare form of leukaemia will have to pay $5300 a month for lifesaving medicine because of a stalemate between the Government's drug funder and a pharmaceutical company.

The company, Novartis, had been giving patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia - a form of blood cancer - a breakthrough drug called Glivec at no cost until it was put on the Government's list of subsidised pharmaceuticals.

But Pharmac has not made up its mind whether to finance the drug and Novartis says it cannot keep giving it away.

The decision has shocked sufferers, who from next month will have to pay to continue the treatment.

Dorothy Facoory, aged 65, of Auckland, was given Glivec as part of a six-month trial.

She said her blood count, which used to fluctuate constantly, had stabilised and she felt fit and well.

Mrs Facoory said it was cruel to stop supplying the drug after only six months. In other countries, patients had gone into full remission after taking it for 12 months.

She and her husband, Reece, had tried everything to cure the cancer, diagnosed nine years ago, including five trips to clinics in Mexico and doses of interferon, which had nasty side-effects.

Pharmac chief executive Wayne McNee said the agency did not believe it was acceptable for Novartis to stop giving patients Glivec free.

"In our view, they began the patients on it and we believe they have an obligation to continue to provide it until such time it is funded or the patients are no longer benefiting from it," he said.

But Novartis said Pharmac had known about the drug since March and had not made a decision to pay for it despite ,many meetings since.

Managing director Patrick Geals said Pharmac was being unfair and "elusive".

"I think they should get on with it and do something about it," he said. "If these people hadn't been given the drug free, at least one or two out of the 30 would be dead right now.

"Pharmac are calling us unethical and I find that quite hard to take. It's unacceptable when we are really extending people's lives."

Mr Geals said New Zealand was a first-world country with a fully fledged public health service, which meant pharmaceutical companies expected that free drugs would be given out only for up to a month after they had been registered with the Health Ministry.

"We have already extended that another two months into February," he said. "Pharmac may think this is a sleek marketing ploy to bring pressure to bear, but it is nothing of the sort."

Mr McNee could not indicate when a decision was likely but said the issue would not go to Pharmac's board this month.

A committee advising Pharmac had expressed concern at the cost of the drug and questioned whether it was fair to spend large amounts of a constrained health budget on treating a small group of patients.

Pharmac was looking at the possibility of reaching an arrangement with Novartis similar to one in the United States, where patients earning less than $US43,000 ($100,000) were given the drug free.

Act MP Rodney Hide has written to Health Minister Annette King asking her to look into the matter urgently.

Mr Facoory has a blunt message for the minister on behalf of his wife: if Glivec is not funded, "you might as well legalise euthanasia".

"The misery and suffering of dying cancer patients who should be able to live full lives on Glivec could not be tolerated," he said.