Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Graeme Jarvis: Medicines NZ CEO on National pledging to boost medicine funding

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Graeme Jarvis: Medicines NZ CEO on National pledging to boost medicine funding · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: National is promising to cut foreign aid to pay for
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: new medicines if it leads the next government. It wants
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: to deliver a further $ 604 million uplift in Pharmax Medicine Boost.
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  Speaker 2: Funding more medicine is only part of the picture. We'll
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  Speaker 2: also set a national target to get more Kiwis into
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  Speaker 2: clinical trials, giving them access to the newest treatments, often
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: years earlier. We'll co-invest in producing CAR T-cell therapy here
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: in New Zealand. It is a life-changing cancer treatment. free
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: programs of patients' own immune cells, and making it here
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  Speaker 2: means patients will no longer need their cells sent overseas.
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  Speaker 1: So to talk to this, we've got the Chief Executive
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  Speaker 1: of Medicines New Zealand with us, Graeme Jarvis. Good morning
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  Speaker 1: to you, Graeme.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning, Andrew. How are you?
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  Speaker 1: Very good. You welcome the news?
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  Speaker 3: Look, I think it's a really great start. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: those things are interlinked. If you're not actually investing in
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  Speaker 3: the new medicines, you're not likely to get the... clinical
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  Speaker 3: trials here, so I think we need to get moving
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  Speaker 3: on it. But it's a good start, but there's still
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  Speaker 3: a long way to go.
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  Speaker 1: When you say a good start, you mean, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: you want even more money put into Pharmac?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think we've got to look at history and
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  Speaker 3: go back to the 1990s and say it's a government
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  Speaker 3: decision to basically drop the level of investment in medicines
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  Speaker 3: as part of the vote health portfolio and budget to
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  Speaker 3: about a third of what it is in the rest
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  Speaker 3: of the OECD. So to get back to those sort
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  Speaker 3: of levels is It's going to take a long period
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  Speaker 3: of time and significantly more investment.
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  Speaker 1: And why is that so important?
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  Speaker 3: Because medicine's actually an important part of any health system.
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  Speaker 3: Just ask any other OECD country. They certainly help with
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  Speaker 3: productivity within hospitals, so they help the workforce there. They
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  Speaker 3: help keep people out of the hospitals in the first place.
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  Speaker 3: They certainly help patient outcomes as well. And if people
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  Speaker 3: are healthy... They're able to be a productive part of
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  Speaker 3: any economy as well. So, yep, medicines definitely matter. Medicines
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  Speaker 3: do make a difference.
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  Speaker 1: Well said. Let's look at some of the particulars. National
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  Speaker 1: has a target for clinical trials. What did you make
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  Speaker 1: of that?
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  Speaker 3: Again, a good thing to do. I mean, clinical trials
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  Speaker 3: have many benefits for health systems in terms of helping
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  Speaker 3: doctors get experience with some of the up-and-coming medicines that
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  Speaker 3: are still experimental, so they're not actually in the system.
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  Speaker 3: And they also have benefits from an economic perspective. So
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  Speaker 3: for foreign direct investment, I mean, because companies pay to
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  Speaker 3: run clinical trials, they're really important. But I would hasten
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  Speaker 3: to add that a lot of other countries have got
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  Speaker 3: onto this foreign direct investment thing. And it's actually whether
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  Speaker 3: you're investing in the medicines once they make it through
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  Speaker 3: the clinical trial process. And at the moment, I'd say
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand is, well, bottom of the barrel from the
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  Speaker 3: OECD perspective. So good to see us. Pull our socks up. Okay.
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  Speaker 1: The other thing they talked about was CAR T cell therapy,
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  Speaker 1: the therapy that saved David Down's life. He's been a
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  Speaker 1: big advocate. Is it really a silver bullet? Is that
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  Speaker 1: a game changer?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think that's the beauty of innovation in medicines,
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  Speaker 3: isn't it? We're getting a lot of these potentially one
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  Speaker 3: and done treatments. So you're not on something for long
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  Speaker 3: term for your cancers, for example. some of the gene
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  Speaker 3: therapies that are coming through that other countries are investing
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  Speaker 3: in as well, which are one and done. These are
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  Speaker 3: all exciting developments, and I think it's the right thing
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  Speaker 3: for us to do. I mean, a productive economy only
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  Speaker 3: comes if you've got a productive workforce that aren't sick
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  Speaker 3: and unable to be at work. So it's all got
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  Speaker 3: to be good.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Graeme Jarvis, thank you. Stay well. Graeme, of course,
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  Speaker 1: is the CEO of Medicines New Zealand.
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  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: to News Talk ZB from 5 a.m. weekdays or follow
• 3:27
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