Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Tim Edmonds: Blood Cancer NZ CEO on Pharmac considering funding two new blood cancer treatments

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Tim Edmonds: Blood Cancer NZ CEO on Pharmac considering funding two new blood cancer treatments · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Fire mac moving closer to banking two new drugs for
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: people living with chronic lymphiatic leukemia. If a proved treatments
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  Speaker 1: could dramatically improve the last span of blood cancer patients,
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  Speaker 1: with access possible from as early as May. Tim Edmonds
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  Speaker 1: is Blood Cancer New Zealand CEO and with me this morning.
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  Speaker 1: Hey Tim, Well you're right, Elliott, I'm good, thank you.
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  Speaker 1: What does a new treatment do that others don't Well.
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  Speaker 2: This is a really important step for treatment of blood
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  Speaker 2: can to patients, particularly our patients, because it takes as
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  Speaker 2: targeted approach to what they call first line treatments. So
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  Speaker 2: once a patient is initially diagnosed, being able to access
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  Speaker 2: a targeted therapy rather than a chemotherapy is a really
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  Speaker 2: important step here. So patients at the moment would be
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  Speaker 2: exiting a chemotherapy potentially up to twenty hospital visits over
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  Speaker 2: six months, whereas they can actually take an oral tablet
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  Speaker 2: upheld every day from home without those same hospitalizations and
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  Speaker 2: actually get better outcomes. So it's really important for patients
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  Speaker 2: as they're diagnosed and initially treated.
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  Speaker 1: How important was it because what you're saying is you
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  Speaker 1: have fewer people in hot visit having to go into
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  Speaker 1: hospital to have treatment, they can do it at home.
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  Speaker 1: How important was the change that the government made to
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  Speaker 1: the mandate to say you need to look at the
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  Speaker 1: overall benefit of these new.
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  Speaker 2: Drugs yesterday when it was announced by the Minstery of Health,
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  Speaker 2: that was specifically referenced around the efficiencies to a health system.
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  Speaker 2: And I think that's the opportunity with modern medicines is
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  Speaker 2: that it achieves not only better outcomes for patients, but
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  Speaker 2: it can also improve efficiencies from their health system. And
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  Speaker 2: you can imagine the costs are associated with twenty hospital
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  Speaker 2: visits and then the complications that often come with chemotherapy
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  Speaker 2: and the long term challenges of chemotherapy's toxicity. So this
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  Speaker 2: is a really important step that many health systems around
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  Speaker 2: the world have taken many years ago, and it's available
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  Speaker 2: in many bud cancers because atsually it's at the forefront
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  Speaker 2: of these the therapies. So, yeah, that leans of both
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  Speaker 2: how do we improve patient outcomes, how do we improve
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  Speaker 2: how system efficiency really come together in this proposed announcement.
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  Speaker 1: Tim, what's next on your list?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, heading into last election, there was a promise
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  Speaker 2: to not leave blood cancer patients behind. Some of those
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  Speaker 2: commitments have been made and this is a great example
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  Speaker 2: of one of them. But there were commitments to my
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  Speaker 2: owner patients that haven't been met to wider blood cancer patients,
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  Speaker 2: and they all set on this medicine's weightlift that FARMAC have.
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  Speaker 2: So far. MAK have said that these are cost effective,
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  Speaker 2: that they are important medicines for the government to fund,
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  Speaker 2: but at the moment there's no money allocated to far
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  Speaker 2: MAK to fund any new medicines. So we're really looking
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  Speaker 2: to budget and to the election to make sure that
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  Speaker 2: actually New Zealand is not left behind. New Zealanders with
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  Speaker 2: these blood cancers are not left behind in their treatment options.
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  Speaker 1: Appreciate your time this morning. Tim tim Edmond's Blood Cans
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  Speaker 1: in New Zealand.
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• 3:00
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