David Seymour: Pharmac Minister on cancer drug funding

The future of National's promise around 13 cancer drugs is set to become clearer.  

The Government's due to make a Pharmac funding announcement – which could bump up its medicines budget by 40%. 

Pharmacy Minister David Seymour told Heather du Plessis-Allan Pharmac could be instructed to fund specific drugs, another entity could be set up (like the previous government did for Covid vaccines), or more money could be allocated to Pharmac - protecting its independence. 

Seymour said “Pharmac at any given time has its options for investment lists” 

He said “I wouldn’t be able to ask them – the whole point is that they’re at arm's length from politicians and they’re independent.” 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Sounds like Cabinet's going to decide on Monday how to
fund nationals thirteen cancer drugs. The word is the Cabinet
will bump farmac's budget up by about six hundred million
dollars over four years to make that happen. David Seymour
was the farm AC minister. Hey, David good, is that
one of the considerations, a funding boost of six hundred million.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm going to put numbers on it, but you don't
actually need any special inside information to work out that.
Nikola Willis really set out the options about two weeks ago,
and I think she did a very accurate portrayal. Either
FARMAC could be instructed to fund specific drugs so the

(00:41):
government can keep its promise to national and as patients.
That that would be I think an extraordinary departure from
Farmac's independence, but a logical possibility. Some other entities such
as what Labor did to buy the Farmac sorry COVID
vaccines would be set up again a pretty radical move.

(01:03):
The other is to give more money to FARMAC, protect
its independence and keep giving it money until more pharmaceuticals
come out. And that of course is the third logical possibility.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Yeah, the third option is obviously the one that would
be preferable. But how long would that? I mean you
could go for years, even decades without the stuff being funded,
couldn't you.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Well, that's not necessarily true. You know, FARMAC at any
given time has its options for investment lists, which it's
already done the maths on and said, if we had
an extra dollar, we would buy more of these treatments
because those are the ones that, according to our formula,
would deliver greater benefits for people who are fighting various conditions.

(01:51):
Up and Dounew Zealand.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Are all thirteen of these drugs on that wish list?

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Well, I wouldn't even be able to ask Pharmac if
that was the case, because the whole point of it
is that there are at arm's links from politicians and
they're independent. And what's more, if I can find out,
then of course you end up with a situation where
politicians are basically sort of winking and nudge guiding the

(02:19):
decision making by giving money to get to a certain
drug on the list. So that's not how it works
and not how it should work.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
You would never go down that path, would you? As
a cabinet David? You would never give them six hundred
million dollars and then expect them to fund these thirteen drugs.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Well, I think we have to be really clear that
if Farmac has some challenges, there's no question about that.
I've been quite open about it. It's part of the
reason why I took it on, and that's around listening
to patient voice, being prepared to show how funding more
treatments can save the healthcare system and the government money elsewhere.
It's about how they deal with devices which are sort

(02:58):
of half responsible for, and I think it's generally to
do a thing a bit more collegial. I've been quite
open about this criticisms. However, the pharmac model at Base
is run by some very able people, very good at
pharmacology and finance. They make good decisions, so the bust decisions,
and they negotiate less. The pharmaceutical company is on behalf

(03:20):
of all of us, and that hardcore of Farnach I
think is something that we should be very pleased to
have as a country. I think it serves us well
and we should always be very cautious about compromising it.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
David, thank you for you. Tom appreciated good like on Monday.
That's David Seymour, the Farmac Minister, be dealing with it
on Monday Cabinet.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
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