Many lifesaving cancer drugs that are funded by governments in different parts of the world are still not accessible to cancer patients in Australia. Because these drugs have not yet been approved for subsidy by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, accessing them is beyond the financial means of many Australians leaving patients to resort to extremes to collect the needed funds or else forgo the treatment completely.

Various drugs that have not received any rebate by the government include those that have elsewhere been approved for treating lung, brain, blood, breast and prostate cancers among many others. The need to rebate these medications has been stressed by an alliance of oncologists as well as various support groups to make the drugs attainable by all Australians.

Many of the drugs include well known medications like Abraxane, Kadcyla, Xalkorl, and Zelboraf targeting pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer and melanoma respectively. Other than these medications there is a vast variety of others that can effectively address issues of bone marrow cancer, gastric cancer, leukaemia, kidney cancer and thyroid cancer along with many other types of rare cancers as well.

Recommendations to subsidise cancer treating drugs in Australia has also been advocated by other bodies like the UK’s Cancer Drug Fund with suggestions to set up a separate fund outside the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme to look after cancer related drug availability across the country. Even local bodies like Australia’s Cancer Drug

Alliance is pressing on the federal government to start a fund that can grant quick access of cancer medication to patients and states that while it just takes around six months for many other countries to subsidise new drugs after clinical approval, the same process may take anywhere from two and a half years to six years for drug approval in Australia.

And while the approval process is ongoing many patients have to pay exorbitant amounts out of their own pockets to receive the treatment and still many more have no choice but to go without any treatment due to cost barriers of the process. What makes the whole scenario very difficult to understand is that the treatment is there, it is just not available for everyone who may be entitled to receive it.

Meanwhile in the UK, the country’s $361 million Cancer Drugs Fund has been helping 36,000 cancer stricken individuals to access medication that has otherwise not been approved by the country’s National Health Service.

For suffering Australians in the meantime, family members and support groups have been rallying to collect the much needed funds. Of these Michelle Shao has been working seven days a week to help procure Avastin, a drug needed to fight terminal metastatic ovarian cancer. Ms. Shao works nonstop during the week so she can collect enough money for her mother, who suffers from this type of cancer.

Another cancer patient Cherie Moore has paid for the first $10,000 worth of the same medication, after which Avastin’s manufacturer, Roche, is now sharing the cost for future treatments.

The complete list of the 36 drugs for cancer that are not available in Australia are listed below:

1. Abiraterone acetate drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with prostate cancer

2. Alco-trastuzumab drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with breast cancer

3. Alemtuzumab drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with leukaemia

4. Alitretinoin drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with AIDs related sarcoma

5. Axitinib drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with kidney cancer

6. Bexarotene drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with cancer of the immune system

7. Bevacizumab drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with colon, brain, lung and kidney cancers

8. Bortezomib drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with blood cancer

9. Bosutinib drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with leukaemia

10. Cabazantinib drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with thyroid cancer

11. Carfilzomib drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with bone marrow cancer

12. Crizotinib drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with lung cancer

13. Denileukin diftitox drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with cancer of the immune system

14. Erlotinib drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with pancreatic cancer

15. Ibritumomab drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with blood cancer

16. Lenalldomide drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with bone marrow cancer

17. Obinutuzumab drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with leukaemia

18. Ofatumumab drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with leukaemia

19. Paxlitaxel drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with pancreatic cancer

20. Pazapanib drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with soft tissue sarcoma

21. Pertuzumab drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with breast cancer

22. Ponatinib drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with leukaemia

23. Pralatrexate drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with leukaemia

24. Regorafenib drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with colon and stomach cancer

25. Romidepsin drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with cancer of the immune system

26. Ruxolitinib drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with bone marrow cancer

27. Sorafenib drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with kidney and thyroid cancer

28. Temsirolimus drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with kidney cancer

29. Trametinib drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with melanoma

30. Trastuzumab drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with gastric cancer

31. Tretinoin drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with leukeima

32. Vandetanib drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with thryoid cancer

33. Vemurafenib drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with melanoma

34. Vismodegib drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with skin cancer

35. Vorinostat drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with cancer of the immune system

36. Ziv-aflibercept drug treatment used to treat Australian patients with colon cancer

References:

1) Thirty-six wonder drugs could extend or save the lives of cancer sufferers, but our leaders just need to fund them: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/thirtysix-wonder-drugs-could-extend-or-save-the-lives-of-cancer-sufferers-but-our-leaders-just-need-to-fund-them/story-fni0fiyv-1226905196352