Health

Petition delivered to Parliament over Pharmac budget

08:21 am on 13 May 2021

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About 200 people braved rain in Wellington yesterday to deliver a petition to Parliament demanding big increases to the budget of drug-buyer Pharmac.

They included 10-year-old Ryker Tolich, there to support his mother Fiona, who has the muscle-wasting disease SMA.

Seventeen-year-old Bella Powell said she can't afford to live in New Zealand because of the cost of treating her cystic fibrosis.

A petition with more than 100,000 signatures was presented to Parliament, seeking the overhaul of Pharmac, which is already under review.

Malcolm Mulholland, a spokesperson for the Patients Voice Aotearoa; and Ed Gane, a professor of medicine at Auckland University and deputy director of the New Zealand Liver Transplant Unit, spoke to Susie Ferguson.