- 3 years ago
8 March 2024
“Count Her In: Invest In Women. Accelerate Progress” is the theme for International Women’s Day 2024 and resonates because, at AstraZeneca, we are doubling down on our efforts to ensure more women get earlier, faster, and fairer access to our cancer medications.
One in two Australians will be diagnosed with cancer by the age of 85. Breast cancer remains one of the leading causes of death in Australian women and ovarian cancer is Australia’s deadliest female cancer.
Around 50,000 Australians sadly lose their life to cancer every year, or 137 people each day. In our mission to eliminate cancer as a cause of death, we at AstraZeneca are working to ensure no woman facing cancer is left behind.
“Count Her In: Invest In Women. Accelerate Progress” is a theme particularly relevant to the 10,500 Australian women estimated to be living with metastatic breast cancer – an incurable, invasive disease that has spread to other parts of the body. It comes with ongoing treatment and poor survival rates.
But it’s not just women with cancer we want to help here – it’s every woman, given that many of us love and care for cancer-affected parents, partners or children.
Cancer does not discriminate and the majority of families are in some way affected by its consequences. My own personal experience is, sadly, no exception.
Leading AstraZeneca’s Oncology Business Unit with our ever-growing pipeline of new medications, alongside new treatments, is a privilege and the future of not just breast and gynaecological cancer care, but oncology in general in Australia excites me greatly.
I am proud to say AstraZeneca is one of the largest investors in clinical trials in Australia, supporting 63 oncology and haematology trials at 266 sites across the country. The inclusion over the past five months of five of our cancer medications on the PBS ensures more patients can now access the medicines they need.
However, in the absence of reform over the past 30 years, the Australian Government’s system to fund new medicines has struggled to evaluate new medicines in a timely manner.
Currently, cancer patients in Australia face a significant delay in accessing medicines – on average, it takes 442 days from when a new cancer medicine receives TGA approval to it being funded via the PBS. This waiting period is two months longer than comparable OECD countries.
Some patients will pass away while they are awaiting access; others resort to crowd-funding to meet private treatment costs.
For this reason, we are calling on the Government to establish an Interim Cancer Fund to provide faster access to new cancer treatments for Australians, ensuring equitable access to the best available treatments so that Australian healthcare does not lag other OECD countries.
According to Medicines Australia’s ‘Medicines Matter 2022 Report’, the top four countries reimbursed more than 70 per cent of New Molecular Entities (NMEs) within six months of their registration while only 17 per cent of NMEs were reimbursed in Australia in the same timeframe.
Providing government-reimbursed access to new cancer treatments as soon as they are approved by the TGA could deliver significant social and economic benefit for Australia – such as higher workforce productivity and a reduced need for government-funded support services, while also giving patients more time with their loved ones.
An Interim Cancer Fund is one example of how we can help support greater equity of access, not only for women with cancer, but also those whose partners, parents, friends and/or children are dealing with cancer. Helping all patients gain earlier access to oncology medicines that may save or significantly extend their life stands to benefit all Australians.
We’ll be meeting with key clinical and patient advocacy experts at Parliament House this month to discuss the opportunity for the Interim Cancer Fund in Australia to enable equitable and innovative care within the healthcare system for cancer patients.
We will continue to advocate for patient-centric reform, invest in research and development, and push the boundaries of science to create sustainable change for everyone affected by this devastating disease. The greatest outcome is that we will inch ever closer to eliminating cancer as a cause of death.
A world in which cancer is not the end but rather a treatable disease and envisaging how this would transform the lives and futures of millions of women along with those they love and who love them, is what inspires and drives me and my colleagues, today and every day.
Heather Cahill is Business Unit Director of Oncology at AstraZeneca Australia and New Zealand.