Pharmac Respond To Our Submission On Avastin

Almost a year ago, Pharmac put out a proposal to decline 97 medications, including Avastin, for advanced ovarian cancer. 

Cure Our Ovarian Cancer made a submission strongly opposing this move and we are pleased to say that Pharmac listened to our feedback and agreed not to decline the application for now. 

They quoted the issues we raised in our submission as reasoning, including that Pharmac may be able to negotiate a more favourable price now the patent for Avastin has expired, that there are competitors in the market and that the clinical committee declined the application on the assumption that using an old treatment differently would achieve the same benefit. Four years later, a clinical trial of the old treatment proved this was not the case.

We are hopeful, but note the application to fund Avastin was made in 2013. We do not think that it is fair that Kiwi women have to wait so long to access a type of treatment which is funded in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. We approximate that collectively wāhine could have had 500 additional years of life if this treatment were to be funded in New Zealand already.

Australia funds approximately $9 a week per person on pharmaceuticals, whereas New Zealand funds just over $4. We strongly support the work of Patient Voice Aotearoa and The Medicine Gap to increase Pharmac funding to improve access.

For wāhine with ovarian cancer, the funding of Avastin would not only mean more time, it would also mean more access to clinical trials. Avastin is the standard of care in many parts of the world, and some clinical trials will not let people participate unless they have had it as part of their treatment; this is for ethical reasons because they want to know that people have had the standard of care before they try a new treatment, with unknown benefits and possible risks. In addition, some clinical trials are combination trials looking at Avastin in combination with other treatments or that compare Avastin to a new treatment. Because New Zealand does not fund the standard of care, while other countries do, this acts as a barrier to clinical trial access, doubly reducing treatment options for women.

We have written to Pharmac, applauding their decision not to decline Avastin and emphasising the importance of more treatments for our leading cause of gynaecological cancer death.