Aussie cancer patients wait while negotiations over wider availability of Keytruda go on

A decision on allowing Keytruda to be available more widely on the PBS has been delayed. Read why and what happens next.

Exclusive: Thousands of Australian cancer patients are at risk of dying as they wait for health officials to decide on the wider availability of wonder drug Keytruda.

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) has deferred its decision on whether Keytruda will be available to more Australians through an agreement that would have been the first of its kind in the world.

At present Keytruda is assessed for use individually, but the proposal from pharmaceutical company MSD Australia and New Zealand would have allowed Keytruda to be bulk approved for several cancers at a time.

However, the PBAC wants more detail about the total cost of the proposal, and how much would be paid for by taxpayers, as it negotiates further with MSD.

“The pharmaceutical company responsible for pembrolizumab, Merck Sharp & Dohme, indicated that it looks forward to working with the PBAC and the department to resolve the outstanding issues,” a Heath Department spokesman said.

Immunotherapy drug Keytruda could soon be more widely available.

An extra eight cancers would have been immediately available with as many as 24 over the next four years - benefiting 20,000 cancer-sufferers.

They would also save thousands of dollars as Keytruda would be available for as little as $7 and slashing the wait time from an average 447 days to zero.

MSD Australia and NZ said the delay was disappointing.

“It’s important that this process moves forward quickly because we know that often cancer patients don’t have time to wait,” MSD managing director Prashant Nikam said.

The PBAC said it would be “appropriate and desirable” to have a simplified process but wanted to consult further, with MSD, the federal government, and other pharmaceutical companies before making a decision.

The drug, which works with a patient’s own immune system to destroy cancer cells, is already subsidised for Hodgkin’s lymphoma, late stage malignant melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer.

Prashant Nikam Managing Director, MSD Australia and New Zealand said Keytruda had been proven to be safe and effective against many cancers.

Rare Cancers Australia chief executive Christine Cockburn.

Mr Nikam said it was unclear when a final decision would be made.

“MSD is keen to work as quickly as possible with Government to resolve outstanding matters so that multi-cancer funding becomes a reality for Australians living with cancer,” Mr Nikam said.

“It’s important that this process moves forward quickly because we know that often cancer patients don’t have time to wait. Our worry is that if we look at this novel solution of multi cancer funding with a traditional lens of individual drug by individual indication it will get caught in the process,” Mr Nikam said.

Rare Cancers Australia CEO Christine Cockburn said a new approach was needed.

“We have to find a way to expedite the process and to make sure that people have timely access to medicines that we know have a very good chance of working in extending lives,” Ms Cockburn said.

“People are paying out of pocket at the moment with rare cancers for medicines that are in this country now - and they’re living well. They’re living well on those medicines. And while there may not be a huge evidence base of data to suggest that the medicines are effective, there are people walking around living well...We really have to have an innovative and different approach, or people will go without,” Ms Cockburn said.

Under the current approach, it would be “decades or longer” until some rare cancers were listed on the PBS.

“And people are dying,” she said,

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler was contacted for comment.