- Target:
- Minister of health Peter Dunne and Pharmac
- Region:
- New Zealand
We have a daughter who has life threatening seizures. She used to have seizures lasting from hours to 20 hours. We live in Kaitaia. We were told by the specialist in September she is deteriorating and she may die.
We have tried all funded epilepsy drugs available in NZ. We started her on prescribed sativex (medicinal marijuana) and she has improved by over 50% and she is on low dose. Since introducing sativex in September she has not been in hospital.
The cost of this medication is $990 but some pharmacies charge as high as $1300. Pharmac and Ministry of Health wont fund this medication. We have been told by Pharmac CEO that they dont consider the consequences of withdrawing the medication even the doctors have confirmed that our daughter may die, policy is more important.
If our daughter has to be hospitalized it will cost taxpayers and the state about $15,000 upwards per month which includes helicopter transfer of $3599 from Kaitaia to Whangarei , ICU cost and medication of $6725 per day, but sativex will cost only $990.
Sativex has to be approved by minister of health for a person to use and then prescribed by specialist (not GP), this drug is legal to use in NZ. Our daughter has got approval from the Minister
We would like to request Minister of Health and Pharmac to fund the supply of Sativex (Medicinal Marijuana ) to treat life-threatening seizures and multiple Sclerosis. The cost of this medicine is $990 per month.
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