Katherine Rich: BusinessNZ Chief Executive on the new report warning NZ to spend more on medicines

BusinessNZ's calling for a funding reset on medicines, with a new report highlighting the long-term benefits of investing more into healthcare.

The report shows every dollar invested into medicine returns $1.93 to the economy. 

BusinessNZ CEO Katherine Rich explained that there's long-term benefits into investing more, including boosting productivity and improving the quality of life for New Zealand families. 

"It takes up to six years to get a new drug through - and these are drugs that are available freely not just in Australia, but around the globe." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Business New Zealand is calling on the government to invest
more in medicines. It's released a report which says for
every dollar that the government puts into medicine, it returns $ 1. 93,
basically double it to the economy. And the CEO of
Business New Zealand is Catherine Rich.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hi, Catherine. Good evening.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
How does that work? Is it basically every bit of
medicine we give people makes it more likely that they
go to work?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
That's right. And I think it's something that a lot
of your listeners would think to be a known truth,
but we've just collected the economic evidence for it. If
you spend more on medicines and try and get the
expenditure for New Zealand up around the OECD average, there'll
be long term benefits for people, productivity, people turning up

(00:44):
at work, let alone the quality of life for a
lot of New Zealand families.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
What medicines would you like to see more money put into?
Like what are the ones that are going to provide
the greatest return?

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Well, Pharmac has quite a good system already in terms
of analysing new medicines, and they do an analysis and
make sure that it's a good investment, but they have
about 134 medicines currently on their books that they've ticked
all the boxes for, but they just can't fund due
to not having sufficient budget. And a lot of those

(01:17):
medicines relate to cancer. The most recent high-profile example, which...
is a good one would be the recent funding of
Trikafta for cystic fibrosis. Now, that was a drug where
it was very clear that funding that could add up
to 27 more years of a healthy life for a Kiwi,

(01:38):
and it took a long time. Now, there are others
in the pipeline right now. It takes up to six
years to get a new drug through, and these are
drugs that are available freely not just in Australia but
around the globe.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
So, Catherine, I mean, obviously the stuff that, you know,
abates cancer and allows somebody to live for decades, it's
very expensive stuff, would work quite well. But does it
also include things like antivirals, which might mean that you
only take a couple of days off instead of seven?

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yes. I mean, that's why Business New Zealand gets involved
in these sorts of issues, because we'd argue that health
is one of the biggest assets you own as a person.
and as a contributor to the economy. If you're healthy,
then you can go to work, you can contribute. And
it certainly, if you're treated well, it keeps a lot
of people more active. And I think one of the

(02:28):
things that's concerned many people who have advocated for greater
funding is that we all know that we have a
health system here that doesn't deliver modern medicines that are
freely available elsewhere. Sometimes drugs are on are treating people
around the world for up to a decade before we
even see them here. And that's why we argue for

(02:49):
greater funding of medicines in New Zealand, at least to
the OECD average.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Which is what, 13.3% and we're at 4.9?

Speaker 2 (02:57):
13.3, yeah. And Australia, 12.2.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
But that's a huge amount of money that we have
to lift it by, right? Where are we going to
get that from?

Speaker 2 (03:09):
It is a significant amount of money and it does
require a reapportioning of current health budgeting as well as
an uplift. But it's worthwhile because if you know your
family members have access to modern cancer drugs or drugs
for diabetes, depression, you name all the various ailments, we

(03:29):
do know that it will have an impact on people
being available for work, but of course improving their quality
of life.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Catherine, it's good to talk to you as always. Thank
you for your time. Catherine Rich, Business New Zealand CEO.