Don’t be misled by PHARMAC bearing gifts!

 
Herceptin Heroes
Media Release

Auckland, 3 May 2007

For Immediate Release

Don’t be misled by PHARMAC bearing gifts!

The Herceptin Heroes are astounded by PHARMAC’s bold misrepresentation of the efficacy of the 9 week regimen of Herceptin and chemotherapy. The nation’s drug funding agency announced their subsidy of this regimen today for women with early stage HER2 positive breast cancer.

‘We expected PHARMAC to adopt the cheap option,’ said Herceptin heroes Chair Anne Hayden. ‘We knew money mattered more to them than women’s lives and the future of their families and women wanting hope will naturally grasp at a free straw dangled in front of them. But how effective is this really?’

‘PHARMAC’s documentation indicates that in a clinical trial setting, the 9 week treatment Herceptin with concurrent docetaxel was shown to improve survival,’ said Ms Hayden. ‘This is not true. They also claimed that very similar clinical benefits have been shown in trials of short and long duration therapy. They have failed to note that only 54 women in a small study of 232 women received the short duration treatment regime they are funding. This is a far cry from the 5000 plus women in the HERA trial and the total of 12,000 women involved in the 12 month trials.’

The Herceptin Heroes believe the public of New Zealand needs to know that, unlike the 12 month course, the 9 week regimen does not have Medsafe approval. PHARMAC are open about this, but perhaps are less so about its implications. Its FAQ sheet advises that women who are eligible for funded Herceptin will need to give informed consent to this treatment because it does not have Medsafe approval. ‘Although patients routinely consent to medical and surgical treatment, does this disclaimer divorce Pharmac from any responsibility for the administration, success, side-effects or any thing else that might crop up relating to this treatment?’ said Ms Hayden. ‘It seems they are being very careful to cover their backs rather than care for women with an aggressive disease.

‘Pharmac have also misrepresented the issue of cardiac toxicity. There is no basis for their statement that 9 weeks ‘may be less toxic to the heart, although this requires further data’. PHARMAC have based their statement on the FinHer study which defined cardiotoxicity very differently from the way the larger HERA trial did.  They and the DHBs have “generously” offered to fund an unproven substandard experimental regimen.

‘Why can’t our women be as valued as they are elsewhere in the world?’

Herceptin Heroes

Herceptin Heroes is an informal group of women who are HER2+ breast cancer sufferers, mostly with early breast cancer. The group is a member of the Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition (BCAC).

Herceptin is a monoclonal antibody which targets and attaches itself to the aggressive HER2 protein on breast cancer cells, thereby stopping its messages to cells to grow aggressively. It also stimulates the body’s natural immune system to fight back. The other name for Herceptin is Trastuzumab.

 
ends

© Scoop Media