Wow! I have just read Donna Chisholm's feature in the NZ Listener, September 10 -16. Called, Dying in the Dark, it's about the problems New Zealand oncologists and their patients have with access to innovative new treatments.
Basically, it's about something called "compassionate access". This is something I had never heard of before. Drug companies overseas will provide treatments free on a compassionate basis before the drugs are approved by Medsafe or (hmmm) funded by Pharmac. But - according to the cases in this story - there can be problems getting the drugs to NZ on a regular basis.
This case interests me because it has links to the Keytruda issue and we now know that Keytruda and similar drugs are helpful in head and neck cancer cases.
However, the two specific drugs mentioned in the story are for advanced melanoma and are only effective for people who have a certain genetic mutation. If people do, two drugs, Tafinlar and Mekinist, work more quickly than Keytruda and Opdivo.
The article tells the story of a woman whose advanced cancer responded well to the two drugs, but when supply was cut off, her condition worsened and she died soon after. Her oncologist didn't know that she was a UK citizen who could have flown back to the UK and received effective free treatment there from the start.
For various reasons, her husband is taking the case to the Health and Disability Commission.
This is a complex story and it would be best to read it yourself. It's not available online yet. When it is, I will provide a link.
This is highly informatics, crisp and clear. I think that everything has been described in systematic manner so that reader could get maximum information and learn many things.
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It is a great website.. The Design looks very good.. Keep working like that!.
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