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Speaker 1: Now on another subject, patient advocates are furious because of

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Speaker 1: a drug company offering a small group of cases cancer

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Speaker 1: patients early access to a new cancer drug. Problem is

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Speaker 1: Health New Zealand has blocked this. So far, MAK agreed

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Speaker 1: to fund the medicine key Truder from the first of October.

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Speaker 1: You'll remember that cancer patients really stoked about that. It's

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Speaker 1: designed to treat five cancers with this round of funding

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Speaker 1: head and neck, triple negative, breast, colorectal bladder, and Hodgkin lymphoma.

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Speaker 1: The drug company has now offered to give twenty to

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Speaker 1: thirty patients free access in the meantime, but Health New

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Speaker 1: Zealand has blocked it, saying the rollout is planned for

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Speaker 1: October needs to be done on the basis of need.

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Speaker 1: Patient voice olts here or a chair. Malcolm mole Holland

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Speaker 1: is with us. Now, hey Malcolm, for a start, why

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Speaker 1: did the drug company offer it to these twenty to

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Speaker 1: thirty patients.

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Speaker 2: My understanding is that that happens quite a bit. So

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Speaker 2: if a drug company knows that a drug is going

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Speaker 2: to be funded in the interim, they'll offer an early

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Speaker 2: excess scheme giving the drug for free. And so this

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Speaker 2: has happened in the past again with the same company

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Speaker 2: for the same drug, this time for Lunken. So they

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Speaker 2: did that last year and the lead up to it

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Speaker 2: being publicly funded by FARMI, so this is nothing new.

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Speaker 1: Why do they do that?

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Speaker 2: It's a very good question. I suspect it's probably because

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Speaker 2: they want to get the product to market as soon

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Speaker 2: as they can, and they want the patients to be

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Speaker 2: able to access that treatment. Probably if you diagnose them

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Speaker 2: within that time frame they're able to get the product.

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Speaker 2: That means they'll continue on once the funding kicks and

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Speaker 2: so perhaps that's their motivation.

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Speaker 1: Why did heuse New Zealand block it.

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Speaker 2: Look, that's a great question. I can't, for the life

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Speaker 2: of me figure this out, not even on the basis

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Speaker 2: of need. You can have any criteria other than you

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Speaker 2: go and see an oncologist, you are told you have

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Speaker 2: a particular cancer, and they to you this is the

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Speaker 2: best drug publicly available, this is the drug that you need.

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Speaker 2: So to me, the whole need argument doesn't steck up.

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Speaker 2: It's neither here nor there.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't make any sense, Malcolm, because what we're getting

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Speaker 1: is potentially free treatment twenty to thirty people. We should

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Speaker 1: be grateful for that. Shouldn't we Oh?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely we should. This is that's exactly what it is.

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Speaker 2: That's free, and not only that it faces the text

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Speaker 2: payer money because when it's been impused in the clinics

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Speaker 2: in the public system, the amount of time that a

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Speaker 2: patient goes there for an infusion for ky treat that

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Speaker 2: is least and it's also less time spent in the

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Speaker 2: infusion clinic, which frees up seats by other kings of

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Speaker 2: patients that need the likes of tunure drugs and the like.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Malcolm, is it possible? I mean we're talking about

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Speaker 1: so we're right the start of August, so August September,

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Speaker 1: and it's not until October that this actually kicks in

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Speaker 1: through the health system. Those two months that these people

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Speaker 1: would otherwise be treated with key truder, is it possible

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Speaker 1: that their health will deteriorate in those two months to

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Speaker 1: a point that might be I don't know, fatal.

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Speaker 2: It depends on the patient, to be honest with you,

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Speaker 2: and when they're diagnosed, it would be really hard to

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Speaker 2: sort of say, cat blanche that that would be the case.

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Speaker 2: Where my heart really bleeds though, is for those in

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Speaker 2: the next two months who are diagnosed with either head

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Speaker 2: or net cancer, cholarectal or triple negative because the criteria

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Speaker 2: is such that they can only access Key Treader as

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Speaker 2: it's prescribed as a first line treatment. That's the criteria

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Speaker 2: set by CLIMA. So if they're diagnosed and the oncologist says, look, sorry,

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Speaker 2: it can't give you Key treator, but I'll give you

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Speaker 2: a temode drug, that means when it comes to the

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Speaker 2: second or third line treatments down the pathway, they can't

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Speaker 2: access Key Treager anymore because it wasn't given to them

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Speaker 2: as the first line treatment option.

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Speaker 1: Is it possible that how New Zealand have said no

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Speaker 1: to this because what the drug company is giving is

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Speaker 1: two months free access and then after that the public

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Speaker 1: health system has to pick up the key true to

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Speaker 1: cost for these twenty to thirty people. Is that what

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Speaker 1: the problem is?

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Speaker 2: No, I wouldn't think so, because they would have predicted

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Speaker 2: these numbers any here, you know. So that's the basis

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Speaker 2: on which they conduct the negotiation. So it shouldn't come

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Speaker 2: as any great surprise that they're going to be ex

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Speaker 2: amount of patients needing this particular drug.

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Speaker 1: Malcolm, thank you for talking to us. We'll never really

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Speaker 1: understand how's New Zealand as much as we try appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: That's cheer the cheer off patient voice outs here or

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Speaker 1: Malcolm mulholland. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, Listen

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Speaker 1: live to news Talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio