Pharmac extends limit for cancer medicine to be funded in private hospitals

Associate Health Minister David Seymour has today welcomed Pharmac’s decision to extend the 12-month transitional access funding limit for Pertuzumab with trastuzumab (Phesgo) for people receiving treatment for certain types of breast cancer in private clinics. “In the past, when Pharmac funded a new cancer treatment, people already paying for that treatment privately are forced to make a very difficult choice: spend their savings to continue private treatment undisrupted, or transfer to a public hospital. The latter can be detrimental to their recovery,” Mr Seymour says. Under the Government's transitional access policy, cancer medicines funded by Pharmac after 1 July 2025 can be administered in private clinics for up to 12 months. “In December last year pertuzumab with trastuzumab (Phesgo) became the first cancer medicine available in private clinics for patients with metastatic or locally recurrent unresectable breast cancer,” Mr Seymour says. “Pharmac has received requests from multiple private treatment centres asking that the 12-month limit be extended for people receiving this medicine. Pharmac has listened. This medicine will continue to be publicly funded for these patient

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