Breast Cancer Patients Fight on for Herceptin Access

The Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition (BCAC) and the Herceptin Heroes will hold an event in Auckland’s Aotea Square at 1 pm tomorrow (Monday 31 July 2006). The event will offer a moment of remembrance for all those New Zealand women who have died, and will continue to die needlessly, because of insufficient funding for breast cancer treatments.

The event is planned as a response to Pharmac’s announcement on Friday not to fund Herceptin for early stage HER2 + breast cancer, a decision that has stunned and dismayed breast cancer patients and their families.

‘We are appalled by PHARMAC’s deliberate delays in the approval of funding for Herceptin in early stage HER2+ breast cancer,’ said BCAC Chair Libby Burgess. ‘Other countries have responded rapidly to the overwhelmingly positive evidence of the life-saving qualities of this drug. Ireland, France, Canada, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and Slovenia are already providing funded access to Herceptin. In the United Kingdom and Australia, the bodies equivalent to Pharmac have reviewed all the evidence and rapidly recommended funding of this drug. New Zealand already has a 28% worse death rate for women with breast cancer than Australia and Pharmac’s negative decision will ensure that we will fall even further behind.’

But Pharmac’s negative stance on this issue has ensured that the voice of New Zealand’s breast cancer survivors and their supporters will only become louder and more insistent. ‘Breast cancer affects all New Zealanders’, said Ms Burgess. ‘Children have lost their mothers, parents have lost their daughters and husbands have lost their wives. This tragic loss of life must not be allowed to continue.’

About Herceptin Heroes

Herceptin Heroes is an informal group of women who are HER2+ breast cancer sufferers, mostly with early breast cancer. The group is a member of the Breast Cancer Advocacy Coalition (BCAC).
Herceptin is a monoclonal antibody which targets and attaches itself to the aggressive HER2 protein on breast cancer cells, thereby stopping its messages to cells to grow aggressively. It also stimulates the body’s natural immune system to fight back. The other name for Herceptin is Trastuzumab.

To arrange an interview with a representative from the Herceptin Heroes, please contact:

Anne Hayden
Ph: (09) 445 6431
Mob: 0274 2300 343
Email: