South Pacific

The new system in New Zealand will be up and running within two years.

A woman trying to get drugs funded for young SMA patients was horrified when Pharmac said it might end blanket funding of kids' cancer medicines because she had accused it of discrimination.

Now the 28-year-old has been told her “last option” is a treatment that costs $12,000 every three weeks.

Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee rejects cystic fibrosis treatment (Trikafta) on grounds of insufficient cost effectiveness data.

Victoria would spend A$50 million ($39 million) initially to set up the mRNA facility in the state, which authorities said could become the first such centre in the southern hemisphere.

Southern cancer patients paying for unfunded drugs say they are doing so because they are desperate.

The policy change to Pfizer effectively ends plans to have the entire population vaccinated by the end of October.

A new proposal under review to allow New Zealanders to have unfunded chemotherapy drugs administered at local health boards, rather than “expensive” private clinics.

Possible complications with the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine could further slow the already delayed inoculation drive in Australia.

The vaccine, jointly developed by Pfizer Inc and Germany’s BioNTech, will be rolled out in the initial weeks while AstraZeneca’s first batch is expected to reach the country in the next two weeks.

Thousands of protesters have turned out to marches across the country against mandatory vaccination before the COVID-19 vaccine rollout begins on Monday.

Vaccine fury has erupted in Melbourne as hundreds of protesters faced off with police in ugly clashes. Two days out from the first Covid vaccinations, there have been flashpoint rallies across the country.

New Zealand officials injected a small group of medical professionals with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Friday, in preparation for a wider rollout over the weekend.

New Zealand has reported 2,330 confirmed and probable cases since the start of the pandemic, including 25 deaths. That compares to under 29,000 cases and 909 deaths in Australia.

The federal government says it has ordered enough of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which will mostly be manufactured in Australia, to cover the country’s population of 25 million people.