Funds for cancer treatment

on 26 Jun 2019

Janine asks

Hi Terre, I hope your mission to get Ibrance is coming along well. I hope you don't mind me sharing this info with you: have you tried to access a Compassionate Access Program (CAP) for Ibrance? It's a scheme where patients can apply directly to drug companies for free treatment. Your oncologist will know about these and may have already tried this for you. Bless you, all the best x

Terre

Hi Janine! Thank you so much for asking. I haven't personally tried, but I know of numerous stage 4 breast cancer people who have. Most of the ones who have tried were on the sickness benefit and all were refused. I spoke with my oncologist about it, as well as with a representative with Pfizer. Both said because I still work full time and because of the complexity of the criteria, it is highly unlikely that I would qualify. I also believe (I may be wrong) that it is only for drugs not approved by MedSafe, and Ibrance is approved. I also asked about the scheme for another brand of CDK4/6 inhibitor, and was also told that it was highly unlikely that I would qualify. It also has some very unpleasant side effects, so I haven't pursued it further. There is another CDK4/6 inhibitor that has just been MedSafe approved and which may be more cost effective than Ibrance and which doesn't have nasty side effects, so I'm keeping a close eye on it too.

Thank you so much for your kind thoughts and the great suggestion!