Cancer agencies call Govt to honour drug pledge, PM reassures funding a 'priority' (2024)

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is reassuring cancer patients and their loved ones that the funding of cancer drugs is still a priority for the Government after it was missed in the Budget.

It comes as an open letter on behalf of 16 cancer organisations called for the Government to “make good” on its commitment to fund 13 new cancer drugs, which were promised by National before the election.

The Prime Minister told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking this morning it needed more time to find the money, but reassured it was “still a priority” for his Government.

“We are going to do it, we are going to deliver on it, it’s a promise we have made.

“The challenge we had was we had $1.8 billion to go to Pharmac... that was our No 1 priority.”

He would not place the blame on a certain person who made the final decision but said he could “understand why people are frustrated by it”.

Luxon said an announcement for the drugs would be made “well before the end of the year”.

The open letter, addressed to Luxon, Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Associate Minister of Health David Seymour, said cancer patients and advocates “sat in disbelief” when Budget 2024 was announced.

The National Party campaigned on funding, from this year, 13 cancer treatments available in Australia, but these were not announced as part of Budget 2024.

“We have now learned that those 13 medicines may not be funded for at least a year,” the letter reads.

“Patients don’t have a year to wait and will sadly have to look at all the heartbreaking scenarios your party wanted to put an end to. Bowel cancer patients have already been waiting for 22 years, the last time a new medicine was funded to treat them.”

The letter called for Luxon, Willis and Seymour to “make good” on their commitment to fund the 13 new medicines “with the utmost urgency”.

“We know many New Zealanders voted for you because you stated you would fund the new cancer medicines. They are devastated that you have not honoured this commitment of all the commitments you made. Unlike other promises, lives will be lost if these medicines are not funded,” the letter says.

It welcomed the opportunity for cancer organisations to work with the Government to address New Zealand’s medicines crisis, “that sees hundreds of thousands of Kiwis miss out on medicines that are funded in most other developed countries”.

“But for now, let’s make a start and see you deliver on your commitment to fund those 13 cancer medicines,” it says.

The letter comes after Willis received a grilling from Q+A host Jack Tame on why cancer drugs promised in the campaign had not been immediately introduced.

The Finance Minister conceded the party could have done a better job at communicating the wait to people who rely on the drugs to live.

“I’ll accept that,” she said.

Willis expressed regret the new drugs couldn’t be funded in this Budget, but restated her determination to see the promise honoured.

The 13 new cancer drugs, recommended by the Cancer Control Agency, were supposed to be funded by reinstating the $5 prescription co-payment the former Government removed. The present Government’s plan was to reinstate the co-payment from July 1 with exemptions for people under 14, over 65 and holders of the Community Services Card.

National’s pre-election policy document said it would cost $280 million over the next four years, with $70m of that funding starting in the 2024-25 financial year.

Health Minister Shane Reti was less regretful when speaking to the Herald, arguing the policy had always been that the drugs would be funded through revenue from the co-payments, and that hadn’t taken effect yet.

“My expectation is that when we have revenue towards year one from co-payments, then we’ll look as to whether we need further revenue from Pharmac and I’ll have discussions with my colleagues and then we’ll work with Pharmac to meet the obligations that we said we would,” he said.

Meanwhile, Act leader Seymour said money had been put aside to deal with a $270m fiscal cliff in Pharmac, but “I don’t think anybody knew how big the fiscal cliff was”.

The Associate Health Minister believed those supporting funding for the 13 new cancer drugs had been let down by the circ*mstances the Government faced.

“I don’t think the Government has made an active choice, and I’m not sure how the Government could have made a better choice,” Seymour said.

“Obviously, if we didn’t face this fiscal cliff situation that would have been pretty tough, but Nicola Willis and I just sat down and looked at each other and said, ‘We don’t have any choice, we’ve got to put money in to deal with this fiscal cliff’.”

The letter was delivered on behalf of the following cancer organisations:

Benjamin Plummer is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. He has worked for the Herald since 2022.