Pharmac drug decision pleases patient

Multiple sclerosis patient Nicole Pybus no longer feels worthless, after news that two new MS drugs will be publicly funded.

Government buying-arm Pharmac has announced it will fund the treatments for patients with the most common form of MS - relapsing remitting.

Drugs Tysabri and Gilenya are used to delay the progression of physical disability and reduce the frequency of a relapse.

It follows a fight by the Multiple Sclerosis Society of New Zealand and neurologists for the drugs to be publicly funded.

Pybus, 32, from Blenheim, has relapsing remitting MS and is eligible for Gilenya.

Previously, the drugs cost a patient a year's salary - typically between $26,000 and $70,000, Pybus said.

"It was ridiculous to be sent to a doctor's office and told if you are not on this medication, you won't survive beyond 20 years and it won't be a good 20 years."

In March, Hurricanes rugby player Tim Bateman said he and his young family would move to Japan so his wife Laura could access MS treatment not available in New Zealand.

"It was a ridiculous fight," Pybus said. "This drug should have been available publicly years ago, like the rest of the world. In the US, people with MS have 12 drugs available to them; in New Zealand we only have 5. We are still lagging behind."

The mother of one said she felt her future was now more secure. She took Betaferon, but if her condition worsened, she was considering Gilenya.

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Pharmac drug decision pleases patient