Dr Kerryn Symons: Roche New Zealand Country Medical Director on the latest Pharmac funding proposal

It's hoped Pharmac's latest funding proposal will save hospitals and patients valuable time.

It's looking at funding five new medicines - for breast cancer, multiple sclerosis, eye conditions, and lung cancer.

The proposal includes a new under the skin injection treatment, which could replace some IV infusions.

Roche New Zealand Country Medical Director Dr Kerryn Symons says the injection takes just a few minutes, when infusions usually take several hours.

"Our calculations show that over a period of five years, that the number of hours released in the infusion clinics is about 45,000."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
New cancer drugs could save hospitals and patients both time
and money, so Farmac's looking at funding a whole bunch
of new treatments for cancers MS, breast and lung cancers,
as well as eye conditions. The big news a new
injection treatment that could replace IVY infusions, freeing up more
than twelve thousand hospital hours a year by twenty thirty.

(00:21):
Doctor Kiaren Simon's is Roach, New Zealand Country Medical Director
and joins me this afternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Good afternoon, Hi Ryan, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Good to have you. Can you tell us about this
injection treatment how it works?

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yes, So this is FISCO that you're referring to. So
it combines two active ingredients, petuzamb and trastuzamab, which are
currently given and funded by Farmac as intravenous infusions. So
that means that patients need to go into the hospital,
sit in a chair and have a slow drip into

(00:57):
their veins, usually over several hours. So this new medicine
which FARMAC is consulting on, it's given as an injection
under the skin and it's given just in a few minutes.
So the clinical trials showed that eighty five percent of
people prefer fesgo over the IAV versions. It's a reduction

(01:21):
in eighty three percent in the amount of time that
each individual patient needs to sit in the infusion chair.
And our calculations show that over a period of five
years that the number of hours released in the effusion
clinics is about forty five thousand, and that's about nine

(01:42):
two hundred hours of nurse time and about sixty thousand
hours of pharmacist time. So we think that this, if
this is approved by the FARMAC board, that it would
not only offer great health outcomes for women with breast cancer,
but also releasing capacity in a very overstretched system. At

(02:05):
the moment.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
How much extra does it cost?

Speaker 2 (02:11):
There is no extra cost to the healthcare system with
the introduction of this medicine.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
No, Well, because Farmac's funding it, you mean, presumably it
is going to be a more expensive option or is
it exactly the same as the current intravenous Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
That's right. So if you add up the cost of
the two IV medicines and also the cost of the
sort of societal burden of those IV medicines, then the
proposed funding does not cost FARMAC or the healthcare system
more than the current options.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Right, and that's what David Seymour has been pushing for
that FARMAC will look more holistically at the benefits to
the community overall, not just the upfront cost and how
many lives might be saved. It's the freeing up of
resources around the hospitals too.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yes, that's right, that's right, and I mean this is
exciting because if this is approved, it would be the
first time that an intravenous cancer treatment has been made
available as a subcutaneous version. This is not new technology
or new science, but in the past we've not been

(03:28):
able to achieve funding of subcutaneous medicines for cancer. So
if this is approved, it would be a big shift
in treating cancer patients in New Zealand's.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
All right, interesting stuff. Appreciate your time, Doctor Karen Simon's
Roche Country medical Director. For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive,
listen live to news Talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.