20 May 2022
Budget: Patient Voices Aotearoa: Pharmac's funding not enough
The country's drug-buying agency Pharmac has received its biggest increase to its medicines budget ever with 191 million dollars to be spent over the next two years. Fiona Tolich lives with Spinal Muscular Atrophy - a disease which causes progressive muscle wasting. She's part of Patient Voices Aotearoa - a collective of patients, caregivers and advocates who have campaigned for better access to drugs for people with rare diseases. She has lobbied for years for a drug called Spinraza to be funded for children, so we wanted to get her thoughts on the investment.