{"id":371605,"date":"2026-04-09T18:14:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T18:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/371605\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T18:14:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T18:14:17","slug":"pharmac-to-fund-two-medicine-combinations-for-chronic-lymphocytic-leukaemia-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/371605\/","title":{"rendered":"Pharmac to fund two medicine combinations for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Heap<\/p>\n

\nThe funding for two drug combinations for a type of blood cancer has been announced. (File photo)
\nPhoto: 123rf\n<\/p>\n

Pharmac has announced funding for two drug combinations to treat a kind of blood cancer.<\/p>\n

From May 1, people with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, or CLL, would be able to access combination treatments of venetoclax with either ibrutinib or obinutuzumab.<\/p>\n

Pharmac would also widen access to ibrutinib on its own as a second-line treatment, and change the access criteria so that people who had been self\u2011funding venetoclax or ibrutinib could switch to the funded combination treatment.<\/p>\n

Pharmac said the move would reduce strain on the health system, as venetoclax and ibrutinib were oral medicines which people could take at home, rather than needing regular hospital infusions.<\/p>\n

Annually, the changes were expected to affect about 140 people, and reduce strain on the hospitals by about 3700 infusion hours.<\/p>\n

There had been public backlash following Budget 2024 which failed to include promised funding for more cancer drugs, forcing the government to subsequently announce an extra $604 million for Pharmac over four years.<\/p>\n

Since then, the government has funded a number of additional blood cancer drugs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pharmac’s manager of pharmaceutical funding, Claire Pouwels, said: “This decision gives people with CLL more options that can fit better around their lives.”<\/p>\n

“For some people, that could mean fewer hospital visits and less time planning their lives around treatment.”<\/p>\n

Venetoclax, ibrutinib and obinutuzumab were already used to treat blood cancers, but these combinations were not funded together as a first treatment option for CLL.<\/p>\n

The medicines work in different and complementary ways to target CLL cells, and evidence suggested the combinations could help people achieve longer periods of remission while avoiding traditional chemotherapy.<\/p>\n

CLL was a slow\u2011growing blood cancer, Pouwels said. While it could not be cured, many people could live well for long periods with the right treatment.<\/p>\n

The decision followed consultation with people with CLL, their families, clinicians, and consumer advocacy groups.<\/p>\n

“While we weren’t able to make every change suggested, we listened carefully,” Pouwels said. “The feedback shaped this decision and will continue to inform our future work.”<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The funding for two drug combinations for a type of blood cancer has been announced. (File photo) Photo:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[48,47,134,527,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":["post-371605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}