June 04, 2024
Cancer Drugs? Let’s talk big Pharma profits
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Cancer Drugs? Let’s talk big Pharma profits
Matthew Tukaki
I’m going to say something controversial. We need to cast our eyes into the deep dark corner called “truth”
The Government should cop a lot of blame for letting down some of our most vulnerable in relation to life saving and life extending medications. People can argue the point until the sheep are shorn if, like the commitment to suicide prevention, it went from NZ First policy to implementation in the budget – but who shouldn’t escape our gaze are the drug companies. So far they have escaped our gaze and in doing so they tell us they invest heavily in research and development, which they do (so fair call), and they have programs to fund drugs in poorer countries – but lets look at some numbers: In the United States, the total amount of money spent on medicines reached approximately 574 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. Spending increased each year between 2012 and 2022. Ok that’s 927,306,780,213.80. Global spending on medicine continues to grow. In 2022, approximately 1.48 trillion U.S. dollars had been spent on medicines, up from just 887 billion U.S. dollars in 2010. That number is expected to increase to over 1.9 trillion by the year 2027.
To put things into better perspective the total tax revenue for New Zealand in 2023 was 104.5 Billion. In other words, these drug companies make more in income than both Australia Zealand combined $755.8 billion in 2021-22 – ah heck lets throw the entire Polynesian economy in. “At a time when one out of four Americans cannot afford the medicine their doctors prescribe, ten large pharmaceutical companies made over $112 billion in profits in 2022”
Several years ago I was involved in a campaign highlighting the inequity of access to life saving and extending medications – especially when it came to cancer drugs. In all truth it could be any of us.
I watched the inspiring and sad journey of Wiki Mulholland and the passion of her husband Malcolm. I talked to countless New Zealanders who were forced to sell their homes, start online fundraising pages to one lady who raised $8,000 by selling both her own and her mums wedding ring. She once said to me that she just wanted to see her kids grow up. Sadly, like many, she didn’t make it. I spoke with dozens of kiwis in rural and remote parts of the country just struggling to get to Auckland or the few main centres to access radio therapy – struggling to put either gas in the car or food on the table.
These weren’t just the vulnerable from challenging socio-economic backgrounds, they were also hard working middle class kiwis. Along came Christopher Luxon and offered them hope. As a reminder this is what he said: “Almost every New Zealander will have some experience with cancer in their lifetime – either personally or through a friend, colleague or loved one,” Luxon said. “But despite the hard work and dedication of New Zealand’s trusted healthcare professionals, cancer survival rates here lag behind Australia, partially due to Australia’s broader funding of cancer medicines. “The New Zealand Cancer Control Agency recently identified 13 treatments for lung, bowel, kidney, melanoma, and head and neck cancers that provide significant clinical benefits and are funded in Australia but not in New Zealand.”
Luxon said funding the drugs mean New Zealanders won’t have to “leave the country, mortgage their home, or start a Givealittle page to fund potentially lifesaving and life-extending treatments that are proven to work and are readily available across the Tasman”.
The Government essentially lied to all of us – and while they have tried to backtrack today and say an announcement is on the way – every day the situation grows more dire for those who wait. That is the truth – it is not a lie. The Government found the billion dollars for a NZ First regional development fund, millions for a commitment for suicide prevention and billions still for tax cuts whereby the even admitted today that few thousand would actually be worse off. To be frank it’s a joke – and it’s not even a funny one.
Radio Waatea and its board would like to advise that the opinions expressed in this article are those of Matthew Tukaki and not necessarily the views of Radio Waatea, its Management or its Board.