Latest / Best of Business / Katherine Rich: BusinessNZ Chief Executive on the new report warning NZ to spend more on medicines

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Katherine Rich: BusinessNZ Chief Executive on the new report warning NZ to spend more on medicines · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk ZB. Follow this
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  Speaker 1: and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio. Business
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  Speaker 1: New Zealand is calling on the government to invest more
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  Speaker 1: in medicines. It's released a report which says for every
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  Speaker 1: dollar that the government puts into medicine, it returns $ 1. 93,
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  Speaker 1: basically double it, to the economy. And the CEO of
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  Speaker 1: Business New Zealand is Catherine Rich.
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  Speaker 2: Hi, Catherine. Good evening.
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  Speaker 1: How does that work? Is it basically every bit of
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  Speaker 1: medicine we give people makes it more likely that they
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  Speaker 1: go to work?
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  Speaker 2: That's right, and I think it's something that a lot
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  Speaker 2: of your listeners would think to be a known truth,
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  Speaker 2: but we've just collected the economic evidence for it. If
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  Speaker 2: you spend more on medicines and try and get the
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  Speaker 2: expenditure for New Zealand up around the OECD average, there'll
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  Speaker 2: be long-term benefits for productivity, people turning up at work,
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  Speaker 2: let alone the quality of life for a lot of
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand families.
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  Speaker 1: What medicines would you like to see more money put into?
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  Speaker 1: Like what are the ones that are going to provide
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  Speaker 1: the greatest return?
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  Speaker 2: Well, Pharmac has quite a good system already in terms
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  Speaker 2: of analysing new medicines and they do an analysis and
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  Speaker 2: make sure that it's a good investment. But they have
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  Speaker 2: about 134 medicines currently on their books that they've ticked
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  Speaker 2: all the boxes for, but they just can't fund due
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  Speaker 2: to not having sufficient budgets. And a lot of those
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  Speaker 2: medicines relate to cancer. The most recent high-profile example, which
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  Speaker 2: is a good one, would be the recent funding of
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  Speaker 2: Trikafta for cystic fibrosis. Now, that was a drug where
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  Speaker 2: it was very clear that funding that could add up
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  Speaker 2: to 27 more years of a healthy life for a Kiwi.
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  Speaker 2: And it took a long time. Now, there are others
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  Speaker 2: in the pipeline right now. It takes up to six
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  Speaker 2: years to get a new drug through. And these are
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  Speaker 2: drugs that are available freely, not just in Australia, but
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  Speaker 2: around the globe.
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  Speaker 1: So, Catherine, I mean, obviously the stuff that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: abates cancer and allows somebody to live for decades, it's
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  Speaker 1: very expensive stuff, would work quite well. But does it
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  Speaker 1: also include things like antivirals, which might mean that you
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  Speaker 1: only take a couple of days off instead of seven? Yes.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, that's why Business New Zealand gets involved in
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  Speaker 2: these sorts of issues, because we'd argue that health is
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  Speaker 2: one of the biggest assets you own as a person.
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  Speaker 2: and as a contributor to the economy. If you're healthy,
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  Speaker 2: then you can go to work, you can contribute. And
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  Speaker 2: it certainly, if you're treated well, it keeps a lot
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  Speaker 2: of people more active. And I think one of the
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  Speaker 2: things that's concerned many people who have advocated for greater
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  Speaker 2: funding is that we all know that we have a
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  Speaker 2: health system here that doesn't deliver modern medicines that are
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  Speaker 2: freely available elsewhere. Sometimes drugs are on are treating people
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  Speaker 2: around the world for up to a decade before we
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  Speaker 2: even see them here. And that's why we argue for
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  Speaker 2: greater funding of medicines in New Zealand, at least to
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  Speaker 2: the OECD average.
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  Speaker 1: Which is what, 13.3% and we're at 4.9.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. And Australia, 12.2. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: But that's a huge amount of money that we have
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  Speaker 1: to lift it by, right? Where are we going to
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  Speaker 1: get that from?
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  Speaker 2: It is a significant amount of money and it does
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  Speaker 2: require a reapportioning of current health budgeting as well as
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  Speaker 2: an uplift. But it's worthwhile because if you know your
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  Speaker 2: family members have access to modern cancer drugs or drugs
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  Speaker 2: for diabetes, depression, you name all the various ailments, we
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  Speaker 2: do know that it will have an impact on people
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  Speaker 2: being available for work, but of course improving their quality
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  Speaker 2: of life.
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  Speaker 1: Catherine, it's good to talk to you as always. Thank
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  Speaker 1: you for your time. Catherine Rich, Business New Zealand CEO.