Hundreds of patient advocates marched to Parliament on Wednesday, demanding the Therapeutic Products Bill be halted.
One of the main concerns with the bill is that it'll become illegal to use Givealittle pages and other crowd-fundraising efforts to raise money for unfunded medications.
Patients and patient advocates carried their message to the Beehive, chanting, "What do we want? To amend the bill. When do we want it - now
Malcolm Mulholland from Patient Voice Aotearoa said the Government needs to hit pause on the bill.
"If cancer patients can't get the medicines they need, that will end their lives - and that's what this bill is proposing," he told Newshub.
Advocates like Mulholland are concerned the bill will stop access to non-funded medicine.
That includes the cancer drug from Bangladesh that Theresa Zame uses for her stage 4 lung cancer.
"It will be illegal for me to import that medication and I'll die prematurely," she said.
The new bill seeks to regulate medicine and natural products.
Mulholland worries the bill will stop patients from publicly advertising imported, unfunded drugs - potentially putting an end to the use of Givealittle pages to fundraise for medicine.
"You've got a friend who needs unfunded medicine and you share their Givealittle page - you could be prosecuted under the Therapeutic Products Bill," he said.
The bill would also hand the regulation of rongoā Māori (traditional Māori healing methods) to the Government.
"It's a breach of the Treaty of Waitangi, and it's a breach of He Whakaputanga [The Declaration of Independence]," said rongoā Māori practitioner Tohe Ashby.
Every political party turned up to oppose the bill.
"The National Party will be opposing the Therapeutic Products Bill," National's health spokesperson Shane Reti told the crowd.
Every party, that is, except Labour.
"I wasn't available, but we are quite committed to making sure we have modern fit for purpose medicines regulation in NZ," health minister Dr Ayesha Verrall told Newshub.
A report on the bill was presented to the health select committee on Wednesday. It'll soon be tabled in parliament, and advocates hope there will be significant changes to it.
If not, they're vowing to continue protesting.
