Dr Jackie Blue MP
National Party Associate Health Spokeswoman (Pharmacare)

19 January 2007

‘Cheap & nasty’ not good enough for Kiwi women

"Pharmac needs to come clean on its plans to fund a short, unproven, unsafe and cheap course of Herceptin," says National Party Associate Health spokeswoman Jackie Blue.

"I'm shocked by the reliable information I have received, and I need to hear it from the horse’s mouth."

Dr Blue, a former breast physician, says she understands Pharmac is planning to fund only a nine-week course of Herceptin - and plans to sideline the results of the internationally accepted HERA trial.

“What’s not clear is whether the nine-week offer will be stand-alone, or part of a new FinHer trial.”

The original FinHer trial followed 232 Finnish women who had only nine weeks of Herceptin.

"It was poorly designed, and not surprisingly, yielded a statistically insignificant result.

"This is in direct contrast to the large scale international HERA trials which recruited 12,000 women who had 12 months of Herceptin. The HERA results were so highly significant that 23 OECD countries are now funding Herceptin.

"The Labour Government's drug buying agency appears to be going for the cheap and nasty option. There's no scientific proof whatsoever that this will save the number of lives that a proper course could.

"Helen Clark should be ashamed of herself. Some women are mortgaging their homes to pay for this drug. Now her Government’s agencies have the nerve to ask Kiwi women to be guinea pigs.

“It’s absolutely disgraceful. This Labour Government is gambling with women’s lives.”

ENDS

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