Cancer specialist warns TPP will delay medicines

A cancer specialist has warned that if medicine patents are extended under the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, patients will have to wait longer for the drugs they need.
Christchurch oncologist Bernie Fitzharris told Nine to Noon patients were already dying waiting for new drugs to be funded by the Government's drug buying agency Pharmac. Dr Fitzharris said, for instance, there was a new drug to treat malignant melanoma but it was not yet available under the public health system.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/top/279978/cancer-specialist-warns-tpp-will-delay-medicines 

Cancer 'cure' drug breakthrough only for the super rich

Revolutionary new drugs that could cure terminal cancer should be on the market here within a few years but patients will have to be "super rich" to afford them. One four-dose treatment of the drug now under clinical trials costs about $140,000 while other ongoing courses can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
New Zealand Cancer Society chief executive Claire Austin said while the scientific breakthroughs were good news, they also raised ethical issues around patient expectations and access to the costly treatments. "What we need to address is how do we make it affordable and accessible. You have to be super rich to afford these drugs. What value are they if people can't afford them?" Austin said.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/69008646/Cancer-cure-drug-breakthrough-only-for-the-super-rich