5265 (2024). Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall to the Associate Minister of Health

5265 (2024). Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall to the Associate Minister of Health: What progress has been made in the last quarter (October to December 2023) to ‘Develop options for early access to new medicines’ under Outcome 4: New Zealanders have better cancer survival, supportive care and end-of-life care, as part of the New Zealand Cancer Action Plan 2019 – 2029?

Hon David Seymour: I am advised that Pharmac has implemented the recommendation in the New Zealand Cancer Action Plan 2019-2029 to ‘develop options for early access to new medicines’. Pharmac has previously implemented process for cancer medicines and rare disorders medicines whereby it can assess a funding application at the same time Medsafe is assessing the application for regulatory approval. The 2022 Pharmac review recommended that applications for cancer treatments should not be treated differently than other types of treatment.