New cancer drugs that will now be funded by the Government drug-buying agency are already considered "old and cheap", a patient advocate says.
Pharmac has released its first round of funding for several cancer drugs and eight multiple sclerosis treatments. The list included a new treatment for use in early breast cancer and two rare leukemia medicines.
It comes after the Government allocated an extra $191 million over two years to Pharmac in May's Budget.
But Patient Voice Aotearoa Chair Malcolm Mulholland told AM one of the new drugs was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration all the way back in 2004.
"I think Pharmac is trying to redefine the word 'new'," he said on Thursday. "Many of the drugs they're referring to have been funded in a number of countries for a number of years now."
He wanted Pharmac to continue making a dent in its "wish list" of drugs and get more medicines funded.
"Pretty much, that list increased since May - it went up to about 77-78 and now with this new announcement they're down to about 73-74," Mulholland told AM host Ryan Bridge.
"In order to track progress and to see how well Pharmac is doing, we really need to see their wish list come down."
Speaking to AM after Mulholland, Pharmac operations director Lisa Williams said the organisation had been underfunded for many years - and the latest funding was just the start of more increases to come.
"We're really excited about getting this new money," she said. "We've got $71 million available to spend this year and another $120 million next year, so we think we're going to be able to make a really good dent in that list."
Pharmac would try and get the best medicines possible with the additional funding it had, Williams said.
"We're always going to have a list of medicines that are going through the process [of] being added to that option for investment... and that we're using our fixed budget to try and fund for New Zealand."
