Cancer Experts, Patients and Advocates Plead ‘Fund Herceptin Now!

The plea to ‘Fund Herceptin Now!’ was heard loud and clear by a Parliamentary Health Select Committee (HSC) this week as the Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition (BCAC) and Petitioner Anne Hayden made submissions for the life-saving drug Herceptin to be funded immediately for women with early stage HER2 positive breast cancer. Their plea was supported by an impressive line-up of medical experts including Dr Andrew Simpson for the NZ Association of Cancer Specialists, medical oncologists Drs Paul Thompson, Nicole McCarthy, Richard Isaacs, and breast surgeon Mrs Belinda Scott.

But there was frustration over the Ministry of Health’s submission that Herceptin could be funded by re-prioritising the Cancer Treatments Budget rather than increasing it.  ‘This issue is not just about Herceptin,’ said BCAC Chair Libby Burgess. ‘The Cancer Treatments Budget is inadequate. PHARMAC’s investment into oncology is only $42.5M, insufficient to pay for the many life-saving cancer drugs awaiting funding approval. The budget for cancer drugs in New Zealand must be brought into line with those of other developed countries.’

Anne Hayden and the BCAC were delighted at the prompt scheduling of the HSC hearing, but this highlighted the inordinate length of time PHARMAC takes to process approvals for new breast cancer treatments. The taxanes provide a good example. ‘The taxanes were prioritised for funding by the Cancer Treatments Sub-Committee in December 2004,’ said Ms Burgess, ‘and we are still waiting for this life-saving drug to be funded for women with early, curable breast cancer. The sad irony is, women with early HER2 positive breast cancers often need a course of taxanes prior to starting Herceptin so they must pay $24,000 or more for that and then try to find over $100,000 for the Herceptin that follows. Australians have had access to a taxane since 2001. It is time for these access issues to end. Oncologists and patient groups are forced to lobby for better access to treatments for other types of cancer, such as gemcitabine for bladder cancer. The inadequate cancer treatments budget will allow this only by taking funding from one to give to another. This is totally unacceptable. All the existing treatments are desperately needed by patients.  We simply need to spend more, bottom line. It costs New Zealand a huge amount to lose our people to avoidable cancer death, and to treat them for terminal cancer when we could have saved them by early intervention.’ 

‘With every day that passes, one or two women will fall beyond the “window of opportunity’ - that is the acceptable delay between the completion of their chemotherapy and the start of Herceptin treatment.  If too much time has passed they will not qualify for the drug. We must not stand back and silently accept the progression of early curable HER2 positive cancers to advanced terminal disease.’

The BCAC and Ms Hayden have received some good news this week. Herceptin manufacturer Roche announced a 15% discount on the drug’s list price. ‘This is a welcome step and eases the financial burden for women paying for Herceptin,’ said Ms Hayden. ‘It’s great to be able to pass such good news on to other women in my situation.’