Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: The Front Page
Episode: Pharmac funding: Do we need to change how we pay for medicine?
Description: It may have taken a month to get there, but the Government has fulfilled its promise to fund new cancer drugs. Rather than the 13 promised on the campaign trail, it's giving $604 million for 54 new medicines, including 26 cancer treatments. It's hoped the promised cancer drugs will be rolled out within the next year and a half β with the first becoming available from October. But the back and forth over Nationalβs pre-election promise has raised questions about why itβs so difficult to fund drugs in this country β and if Pharmac is up to the task...