Back
2389 days ago

Pharmac announces plan to fund cancer drugs Kadcyla and Alecensa

Brian from New Lynn

The national drug funding agency are proposing that by December 1 Kadcyla, for HER-2 positive metastatic breast cancer, and Alecensa for positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer will be made publicly available. A drug that treats relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis, known as Ocrevus, is also planned to be funded. They say they are seeking public feedback on the proposal to fund the three drugs by August 2019. All feedback received before the closing date will be considered by Pharmac's Board (or its delegate) prior to making the final decision on this proposal. This comes after a long-standing fight from advocacy groups and New Zealanders dying of cancer campaigning for the lives it could extend and save. Earlier this year Lung Cancer Foundation chief executive Philip Hope said five people die of the disease every day while a further six are diagnosed. It launched a petition calling for more and fairer funding from Pharmac, given the number of deaths caused by lung cancer each year. Hope said currently lung cancer drugs get $2,771,115.00 - or 2.3 per cent - of funding. More than 600 Kiwi women die each year from breast cancer, the nation's third most common form of cancer. Funding applications still pending include for Ibrutinib and Venetoclax for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia; Lenalidomide for multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer; for Lynparza and Avastin to be funded for ovarian cancer; six drugs for myeloma; Myozyme for late onset Pompe disease, a rare and fatal metabolic disorder; and medications including Keytruda, Osimertinib and Crizotinib for advanced lung cancer.
===========================================================

More messages from your neighbours
1 day ago

Poll: 🤖 What skills do you think give a CV the ultimate edge in a robot-filled workplace?

The Team from Neighbourly.co.nz

The Reserve Bank has shared some pretty blunt advice: there’s no such thing as a “safe” job anymore 🛟😑

Robots are stepping into repetitive roles in factories, plants and warehouses. AI is taking care of the admin tasks that once filled many mid-level office jobs.

We want to know: As the world evolves, what skills do you think give a CV the ultimate edge in a robot-filled workplace?

Want to read more? The Press has you covered!

Image
🤖 What skills do you think give a CV the ultimate edge in a robot-filled workplace?
  • 52.5% Human-centred experience and communication
    52.5% Complete
  • 14.7% Critical thinking
    14.7% Complete
  • 30.1% Resilience and adaptability
    30.1% Complete
  • 2.7% Other - I will share below!
    2.7% Complete
259 votes
16 days ago

Even Australians get it - so why not Kiwis???

Markus from Green Bay

“Ten years ago, if a heatwave as intense as last week’s record-breaker had hit the east coast, Australia’s power supply may well have buckled. But this time, the system largely operated as we needed, despite some outages.

On Australia’s main grid last quarter, renewables and energy storage contributed more than 50% of supplied electricity for the first time, while wholesale power prices were more than 40% lower than a year earlier.

[…] shifting demand from gas and coal for power and petrol for cars is likely to deliver significantly lower energy bills for households.

Last quarter, wind generation was up almost 30%, grid solar 15% and grid-scale batteries almost tripled their output. Gas generation fell 27% to its lowest level for a quarter century, while coal fell 4.6% to its lowest quarterly level ever.

Gas has long been the most expensive way to produce power. Gas peaking plants tend to fire up only when supply struggles to meet demand and power prices soar. Less demand for gas has flowed through to lower wholesale prices.”

Full article: www.theguardian.com...


If even Australians see the benefit of solar - then why is NZ actively boycotting solar uptake? The increased line rental for electricity was done to make solar less competitive and prevent cost per kWh to rise even more than it did - and electricity costs are expected to rise even more. Especially as National favours gas - which is the most expensive form of generating electricity. Which in turn will accelerate Climate Change, as if New Zealand didn’t have enough problems with droughts, floods, slips, etc. already.

3 days ago

Wills and Luxon are screwing the country to please the oil and gas industry.

Markus from Green Bay

Today the smart investment is in battery peaker plants in combination with solar and wind, or with any other renewable generation capacity during low demand times.
Gas is expensive and will get more so over time.

Let's not forget that Nicola Willis' dad is a big time oil and gas investor, lobbyist, and industry insider.

Maybe this should be posted in ‚Crime & Safety‘?

Image