King Annette: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKing Annette: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 02 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8464. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]5.Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour) to the Minister of Health: What recent reports has he received on access to affordable pharmaceuticals for New Zealanders?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Health): I have received a number of reports including that this Government has increased pharmaceutical funding by an extra $150 million that we are now offering free prescriptions for children under the age of 13 that Pharmac’s budget stands at a record $800 million and that an extra 70000 New Zealanders benefited from new and improved access to medicines last year. I have also had reports that we have completed the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement at minimal cost to Pharmac—an achievement that the member opposite claimed would cost $1 billion.Hon Annette King: Was the Cancer Society wrong in its comments last week that New Zealand does not have similar access to cancer medicines compared with Australia as claimed by Pharmac in its recent report because Pharmac counted only the number of drugs funded and not the number of conditions that the drugs can treat with Australia providing far wider access to its people who are suffering from cancer?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: I would have to go and check the Cancer Society’s statement but in terms of the 22 cancer drugs funded in Australia but not New Zealand the fact is that only one of those has been found to have a significant clinical benefit. I am advised that Pharmac is having a look at that at the moment.Hon Annette King: Why has the advisory committee to Pharmac given the latest melanoma drug Keytruda a low recommendation for funding on the basis of inconclusive data when the United Kingdom and Australia have found the data compelling enough to fund the drug?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: Clearly the member is questioning the scientific evidence that Pharmac bases its decisions on but in the end Pharmac is a body that makes its decisions at arm’s length from the Government. It looks at the data and makes the decision accordingly.Hon Annette King: Is he prepared to set up an early access to medicine scheme similar to that of the United Kingdom which could provide interim funding for ground-breaking cancer drugs like Keytruda to ensure that New Zealanders get the opportunity to extend or save their lives; if not why not?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: I do not know whether the member is proposing that the Labour Party would change the Pharmac model but we are very committed to it. It provides the medicines that the public need. It has greatly increased the number of funded medicines: 41 medicines over the last year and 70000 more New Zealanders than the year before getting access to a medicine. But if Mrs King wants to say she is going to change the model she is welcome to do it. We are not.Hon Annette King: If the Government found it possible to fund the extension of Herceptin during an election campaign why can it not fund Pharmac to make the drug Keytruda a priority for melanoma sufferers because cancer specialists in New Zealand say there is no other meaningful option?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: As the member knows Pharmac has to make decisions in the best interests of all New Zealanders. It gets funded to the tune of $800 million a year an extra $150 million more than what it got when we became the Government and it is managing that pharmaceutical budget in a way that provides the treatments that everyone across New Zealand needs and will receive on an as-needs basis.