Latest news with #cancerdrugs
RNZ News
2 days ago
- Health
- RNZ News
Private hospitals' use of publicly-funded cancer drugs will widen inequities, warn doctors
Under 'transitional access' private patients won't have to shift to the public system for 12 months. Photo: 123RF A move to allow private patients to access publicly-funded cancer drugs threatens to increase wait times for those in the public system, warn senior doctors. Under "transitional access", which comes into effect on 1 July, private patients who are already receiving treatment - or about to start treatment - with a newly funded medicine will not have to shift to the public system for 12 months. Associate Health Minister David Seymour, who has championed the rule change, said it would lessen stress on private patients by enabling continuity of care, and pressure on the public system which would no longer have to deal with a sudden influx of patients. However, the move has been criticised by opposition politicians as "a subsidy for private insurers", which already cover the cost of medicines newly funded by Pharmac, and of little benefit to patients. The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, which represents 6500 senior hospital doctors and dentists, said its members working in oncology and haematology had "significant concerns" the change would widen inequities for patients. In a letter on June 13 to Pharmac's acting chief executive Brendan Boyle, the union's director of policy and research, Harriet Wild, quoted a briefing to the minister saying the policy change "would not increase volumes of cancer medicines provided in New Zealand, as only the location of treatments will change". "It will simply shift some of the existing capacity to the private system, where patients will need to fund infusion costs out-of-pocket," Wild wrote. "There will be pressure on the public system to ensure a smooth transition in treatment regime, which may mean delaying treatment for other people already waiting on the public list and unable to self-fund to start in private. "This potentially creates a two-tier waiting list and a system where those with more financial resources, will be prioritised for treatment." Furthermore, the shift of resources and inevitable increase in demand was likely to speed up the exodus of staff to the private sector, making public waiting lists even longer. A "back-pocket Q&A" provided to Seymour ahead of a Cabinet meeting on April 7 noted that the current eligibility criteria in the Pharmaceutical Schedule (excluding patients in private settings) was "designed to ensure public funding for medicines was prioritised for those managed in the public health system for cancer treatment, assessed by need, rather than public funding supporting those who chose to access treatment in private facilities. "Often the private treatment is funded from private health insurance that people have paid premiums into." In the same document, the minister said there was no plan to expand the policy to include other types of medicines or treatments "at this stage". "With that said, I've asked the Ministry [of Health] to do further work in this area to explore the possibility of broadening access to all publicly-funded medicines in private facilities - not just newly funded cancer medicines. "I encourage the private health providers and insurance companies to work closely with the ministry to support their understanding of how this might work in practice." Wild said opening access to publicly-funded drugs even wider would pull more staff away from the public system, reducing access for the majority who relied on it. "That would establish a system where a patient's ability to receive timely cancer care would depend on whether they could afford the out-of-pocket infusion costs." The government's 2024 Budget boost to Pharmac to widen access to medicines for patients had not been accompanied by extra resources for Te Whatu Ora to deliver the treatments, when public oncology services were already swamped with demand, Wild said. "Our members are increasingly needing to manage deteriorating patients, who are unable to access chemotherapy infusions in clinically acceptable timeframes. "This is unacceptable and represents a significant failure to invest in a planned and co-ordinated way to enable the public system to meet the needs of cancer patients, including those eligible for newly funded cancer medicines. "Whenever a new cancer drug is funded, it must be accompanied by an increase in the full package of care (staffing, infusion space, pharmacy) so that patients can actually receive the medicines within clinically acceptable timeframes." The Health Minister and David Seymour's office have been approached for comment. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- Health
- RNZ News
Taxpayer to foot the bill for cancer drugs for private patients
Taxpayers will soon begin footing the bill for newly-funded cancer medicines administered in private facilities for 12 months, under the so-called "transitional access" arrangement. Photo: 123RF The government's decision to let private patients have publicly-funded cancer drugs is a waste of taxpayers' money, and could even make wait times worse, the Labour Party is warning. From 1 July, taxpayers will begin covering the cost of newly-funded cancer medicines administered in private facilities for 12 months, under the so-called "transitional access" arrangement. In a testy exchange with the Associate Health Minister David Seymour at Wednesday's health select committee, Labour Party spokesperson Dr Ayesha Verrall pointed out the vast majority of New Zealanders did not have private health insurance. "Wouldn't this money have been better spent on hiring oncologists in the public system so that people can get free care there?" Under the current framework, insurers already picked up the tab for any new medicines that Pharmac funded, so the change did not actually benefit patients in most cases, she said. "So this money that you are spending on this is achieving almost nothing in terms of access, it's just a subsidy for insurers." However, Seymour disagreed, saying one should not underestimate the "inconvenience" of having to shift facilities mid-treatment, and people "should not be disadvantaged by the fact that they have taken precaution of having private insurance". "When you're getting treated for cancer, you just don't want any more problems in your life or inconveniences in your life, you just want to get through it." He dismissed Labour's characterisation of the change as "subsidising private insurers". "Insurers don't have any money other than what's paid to them by the patients," he said. "So ultimately this is also a subsidy for the patients, who are also taxpayers who are entitled to public funding in this country.... "You can always say we could do more if we were prepared to exclude some New Zealanders from care in the public system." "Everyone is entitled to care in the public system," Verrall responded. Private patients who were not covered by insurance would still have to pay "infusion" costs to have the medicines administered. Pharmac chair Paula Bennett said the drug-funding agency had been contacted by patients who were in private care and had insurance before Pharmac started funding more cancer medicines. "One man was eligible for four treatments but actually needed 12 and he was going to have to move into the public system to receive the other eight. "The thought of having to change oncologist just to get access to the extra eight treatments that he desperately needed was incredibly stressful." According to correspondence between officials and the minister's office, which was released to the Labour Party under the Official Information Act, the plan was initially going to be announced in April. Seymour was unable to say why the announcement had not gone ahead as planned. Talking points provided to the minister ahead of the Cabinet discussion on 2 April noted no additional funding was being sought for the proposal, but instead Pharmac would "make some trade-offs within the medicines budget" to fund it. "Numbers of patients that will benefit from transitional access may well be small (likely less than 10 per medicine) but over time this policy will reach patients at a critical time." In a statement to RNZ, Pharmac director strategy, policy, and performance Michael Johnson said the rule change applied "only to newly funded cancer medicines (medicines funded after 1 July 2025). "The number of patients expected to benefit from this change will depend on what cancer treatments are funded in the future. " Labour's Ayesha Verrall said doctors working in the public system feared shifting more resources into the private system would further increase inequities and wait times for patients who could not afford private care. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
The Independent
29-05-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Drug combination found to extend lifespan by 30 per cent
A combination of two cancer drugs significantly boosts lifespan in mice, according to a new study that may lead to better strategies for longevity. The drugs rapamycin and trametinib given together as a combination can increase mice lifespan by up to 30 per cent, say researchers, including from the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing. Trametinib alone can extend lifespan by 5 to 10 per cent and rapamycin by 15–20 per cent, according to the study published in the journal Nature Ageing. Researchers say the drug combination has several other positive effects on mice health in old age, including less chronic inflammation in tissues and a delayed onset of cancer. Previous studies showed potent anti-ageing effects of rapamycin in several animals. Trametinib wasn't known to extend lifespan in mice but previous research in flies indicated it might. In humans, the two drugs have been used for cancer treatment. While both drugs act on the same chemical network in the body, their combination appears to achieve novel effects that are likely not attributable to just an increase in dosage. Gene activity analysis of mice tissues shows the combination influences genes differently than is achieved by administering the drugs individually. The analysis reveals specific gene activity changes that are only caused by the combination of the two drugs. In further studies, researchers hope to determine the optimal dose and route of administration of trametinib to maximise its life-prolonging effects while minimising unwanted side effects. 'Trametinib, especially in combination with rapamycin, is a good candidate to be tested in clinical trials as a geroprotector,' Sebastian Grönke, a co-author of the study, says. 'We hope that our results will be taken up by others and tested in humans. Our focus is on optimising the use of trametinib in animal models.' While the exact same kind of effect may not be possible in humans, researchers hope the drugs can help people stay healthy and disease-free for longer in life. "Further research in humans in years to come will help us to elucidate how these drugs may be useful to people and who might be able to benefit,' British geneticist Dame Linda Partridge said in a statement. Scientists hope the drug combination may be developed into a promising strategy for combating age-related diseases and promoting longevity.
