Heather du Plessis-Allan: I'm weirdly grateful for the Government's cancer drugs stuff-up

I think we can all see the Nats stuffed up the 13 cancer drugs announcement on so many levels.

They should never have promised specific drugs, that's Pharmac's job.

But having promised them for the first year, they shouldn't have then broken that promise by leaving them out of the Budget. 

And then, it's never really a good look if you finally get dragged to delivering on your promise because of public outrage.

But having said all of that - sometimes I think we get a little too caught up on the political shenanigans and not focus enough on the end point.

And how good is the end point?

We have just had the single biggest injection of cash into Pharmac ever, we've had more cancer drugs than ever promised to be delivered in one go.

That announcement yesterday of 54 new drugs wiped more a third off Pharmac’s wishlist.

Between the $600 million yesterday and the $1.7 billion announced in the Budget, this Government - which hasn’t even been in power for 9 months - has pumped $2.3 billion into Pharmac.

Now, I'm of the view that Pharmac is one of the most important things any Government funds, because it is literally the difference for some people between life and death.

And those people are people who, more often that not, have paid their taxes diligently and just been good people.

And good, normal, law-abiding Kiwis, I think, deserve access to as many drugs to save their lives as other people in the western world.

I will never complain about Pharmac getting more money, however we end up in that situation.

So in the end, I'm weirdly grateful for National stuffing this up, because we’ve ended up funding 54 new drugs we didn't have funded a couple of days ago. And that's the thing that really matters, isn’t it?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now on FARMAC, I mean, I think we can all
see that the NATS staffed up with stuffed up the
thirteen cancer drugs announcement on so many levels. Right, they
should never have promised the specific drugs because that's farmac's job.
And then having promised them, and in the first year
of the government, they shouldn't have broken that promise by
leaving them out of the budget. And then after that
it's never really a good look as that if you
finally get dragged to delivering on your promise because of

(00:21):
public outrage over it. But having said all of those things,
sometimes I think we can get a little too caught
up in the political shenanigans and not focus enough on
the end point. How good is the end point? I mean,
we have just had the single biggest injection of cash
into FARMAC ever. We've had more cancer drugs than ever
promised to be delivered in one go that announcement yesterday
are fifty four new drugs that wiped more than a

(00:43):
third off farmac's wish list. Between the six hundred million
dollars that was given yesterday and then the one point
seven billion dollars that was announced in the budget, this
government which hasn't even been in power for nine months,
has just managed to pump two point three billion dollars
into farmac. Now, I'm of the view personally that farmac
is one of the most important things that any government
funds is it's literally the difference for some people between

(01:06):
life and death. And then those people are people who
more often than not have actually paid their taxes diligently
and just been good people and good normal law abiding
keywis I think deserve access to as many drugs they
can save their lives as anyone else in the Western world.
I will never ever complain about Farmak getting more money.
However we end up in the weird situation that they
get more money. So in the end, I'm actually weirdly

(01:27):
grateful for national stuffing this up, because we've ended up
funding fifty four new drugs that we didn't have funded
only a couple of days ago. And isn't that the
thing that actually really matters the most. For more from
Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to News Talk said
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