23 August 2019 - Breast cancer patient Denise Lemmen won't benefit from a proposal to publicly-fund new cancer treatments but she's thrilled for Northlanders who will from as early as the end of the year.

Pharmac is seeking feedback on a proposal to fund three new cancer treatments from December and to widen access to one currently funded through a provisional agreement with drug company Roche Products.

The three new drugs are alectinib (Alecensa) for ALK positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer, trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla) for HER-2 positive metastatic breast cancer, and ocrelizumab (Ocrevus) for relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis.

Clinical advice indicates about 800 patients per year will benefit from publicly-funded alectinib.

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