Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Rachel Hart: Cancer Society CEO on the uncertainty in the timeline surrounding cancer drug funding

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Rachel Hart: Cancer Society CEO on the uncertainty in the timeline surrounding cancer drug funding · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So it has gone from thirteen cancer drugs that weren't
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: delivered to twenty six that will be at a cost
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: of six hundred million dollars in total, cancer and beyond
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  Speaker 1: fifty six new medicines will be funded. This is the
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  Speaker 1: big announcement from the government yesterday. First drugs ready by
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: October November, with the rest set to be rolled out
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  Speaker 1: over the next twelve months. Cancer Society Chief executive Rachel
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  Speaker 1: Hart is whether it's Rachel, very good morning to you.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning mate.
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  Speaker 1: Was it a game changer yesterday?
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  Speaker 2: Oh? Absolutely, it was a momentous day. I mean it's
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  Speaker 2: it's such a big part of the medicines that we've
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  Speaker 2: been waiting on. Where really relieved for those families that
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  Speaker 2: have been waiting on those thirteen thirteen cancer medicines and
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  Speaker 2: have thirteen more chucked in? Is great?
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  Speaker 1: Has it been a roller coaster? I mean what they
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  Speaker 1: promised and what they delivered, which up until yesterday was nothing.
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  Speaker 1: That level of disappointment then counteracted by the joy of
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  Speaker 1: what you got. Does it sort of balance it out?
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  Speaker 2: I think I think there's been a lot of uncertainty. Obviously,
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  Speaker 2: my concern is for the those people with cancer who
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  Speaker 2: have been waiting on this announcement. It's been a hugely
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  Speaker 2: stressful time for them. Of course, the uncertainty doesn't end.
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  Speaker 2: Although they know now that these drugs will be funded,
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  Speaker 2: they don't know when. And when you're shelling out thousands
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  Speaker 2: and thousands of dollars a month, every month matters.
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  Speaker 1: What struck me yesterday is the one hundred and seventy
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  Speaker 1: five thousand claim the number of people that will be helped.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, that's a tremendous number of people who are
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  Speaker 1: reliant on farmak.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely and just to remember, this is still only our
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  Speaker 2: first step. We have one hundred and forty treatments that
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  Speaker 2: are on the options for investment lists, so treatments that
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  Speaker 2: FARMAC has deemed as being cost effective and health effective.
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  Speaker 2: And yet they're still still like, so this isn't this
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  Speaker 2: isn't even halfway down that list.
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  Speaker 1: When you say that, Seymour made I thought some interesting comments,
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  Speaker 1: and that is that you'll never get to the bottom
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  Speaker 1: of the list. No country in the world will get
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  Speaker 1: to the bottom of the list. Based on the fact
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  Speaker 1: that that we are in some sort of revolution at
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  Speaker 1: the moment of farmac, not farmac but big farmer producing
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  Speaker 1: things that you know, we're just we're just on the
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  Speaker 1: precipice of something, you know, truly exciting and you can't
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  Speaker 1: afford it. Is that fair or not?
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  Speaker 2: I think I think every country is grappling with the
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  Speaker 2: new technologies that are coming through. However, we are the
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  Speaker 2: only country in the world that has a capped budget
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  Speaker 2: on medicines. So for every other OECD country wants a
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  Speaker 2: medicine reaches a particular threshold, and those are different in
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  Speaker 2: different places, but it gets funded. So New Zealand is
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  Speaker 2: quite unique in being slow to adopt technologies that we're not.
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  Speaker 2: We don't even have standard of care as it would
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  Speaker 2: be expected in most other OECD countries, so we still.
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  Speaker 1: Have a long way to go, which brings us to
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  Speaker 1: the model argument, which I suppose National would argue, this
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  Speaker 1: is why we went with thirteen in the first place,
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  Speaker 1: to try and get around farmac. Is farmac as a
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  Speaker 1: model fit for purpose? And are we happy with it? Broadly?
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  Speaker 1: Has this taughtus some sort of lesson?
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  Speaker 2: I think I think this is this is a lesson. This,
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  Speaker 2: This whole you know, roller coaster that we've been on
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  Speaker 2: shows us that FARMAC isn't working the way we need
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  Speaker 2: we need changes to the model. We need it to
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  Speaker 2: be more efficient, we need it to be more transparent,
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  Speaker 2: and we need a budget allocation that reflects the opportunities
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  Speaker 2: that are available to us.
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  Speaker 1: You can't argue with what the government's done so far
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  Speaker 1: because it's one point six one point seven whatever they announced,
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  Speaker 1: you know, pre budget plus this. I mean you're in
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  Speaker 1: exist of two billion dollars in a country that has
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  Speaker 1: no money. I mean it's not bad yet.
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  Speaker 2: Oh look, we're really excited about yesterday's announcement and it
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  Speaker 2: really is a game changer.
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  Speaker 1: Good stuff, Rachel, good to talk to you. Appreciate it
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  Speaker 1: very much. Rachel Hard, Cancer Society, Chief Executive.
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• 3:49
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• 3:50
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