At $30 million per year just to treat stage IV melanoma cancer, Keytruda is number two with a bullet. The second most expensive drug on the Pharmac budget of $800 million would be based on a political decision by an opposition party keen to win office if the Labour Party had its way.
Source: Pharmac Annual Review 2014, p. 11.
Funding Keytruda at $200,000 per treatment for all 2,000 melanoma patients would consume about 60% of the Pharmac budget.
There are plenty more similar wonder drugs coming down the pipe. This really is a floodgates issue, not just a slippery slope to politicisation.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
Recent Comments