As New Zealand’s election debate continues to focus on the cost of living, a coalition of 17 patient charities has partnered with dotdotdash NZ, McCann NZ and FleishmanHillard NZ to launch The Forbidden Pharmacy.  The installation leads a public awareness campaign exposing another cost being carried by thousands of New Zealanders – the cost of trying to stay alive, stay well, or keep functioning while waiting for access to medicines they need.

The Forbidden Pharmacy, held at Auckland’s Shed 10, featured hundreds of medicines displayed behind locked doors, representing treatments that are available internationally but remain inaccessible to many New Zealanders. Each medicine represented a real illness, a real patient community and a real story about people living with the financial, emotional and physical cost of delayed or denied treatment.

More than 1500 people attended the installation, including members of patient communities, healthcare professionals and political representatives from government parties including ACT, Labour, NZ First, National and the Minister of Health. Throughout the exhibition, visitors heard first-hand accounts from patients and explored the medicines displayed behind locked doors, bringing to life the experience of people who know effective treatments exist but cannot access them through New Zealand’s public health system.

The campaign will continue beyond the installation with a social content series and website encouraging New Zealanders to sign the open letter to the leaders of New Zealand political parties over the coming four months in the lead up to the elections. 

Campaign spokesperson, Tim Edmonds, commented, “By uniting New Zealand’s patient communities and partnering with some of the country’s top creative talent, we’ve revealed the reality faced by thousands of New Zealanders in a way that the public and politicians can genuinely connect with. The Forbidden Pharmacy has elevated an important national conversation about the medicines that remain locked away from New Zealanders, despite their ability to improve, extend and save lives.”

Among those who shared their story as part of the campaign was Judith Ansell, who is living with metastatic HER2-low breast cancer. Although treatment options are available overseas, they are not publicly funded in New Zealand. Ansell has spent more than NZ$90,000 on private treatment after choosing to move in with her daughter instead of buying another home so she could put that money towards treatment. She now faces an estimated NZ$64,000 bill for six months of medicine that is available in Australia, South Africa, Scotland and Lithuania, but not New Zealand.

dotdotdash executive creative director, Haydn Kerr, commented, “It’s been confronting to meet people who cannot get the medicine they need. We are in awe of their strength and heartbroken by the brutal, cruel impossibility they face. It’s unbelievable to me that there are 600,000 New Zealanders in the same position. This must not be ignored. At one point 40 people from the 17 charities, plus representatives from five agencies, were on a single video call trying to build a pharmacy that isn’t even real. But that’s what it takes to get this issue onto the political agenda. Because this mountain hasn’t moved in decades.”

According to the campaign, New Zealand continues to have one of the lowest levels of publicly funded access to modern medicines among comparable OECD countries. Over the past decade, 477 modern medicines have been launched globally, with just 24 funded in New Zealand. The campaign says this means around 95% of modern medicines introduced during that period are not publicly funded locally.

The coalition also points to differences in medicines investment, stating that New Zealand invests around 0.4% of its GDP per capita on publicly funded medicines, compared with an OECD average of 1.4%.

While The Forbidden Pharmacy installation has concluded, organisers say the campaign is continuing to build public support for improved access to medicines. They are calling on New Zealanders to share their stories, join the campaign and encourage political leaders to make timely access to medicines a priority ahead of the next election.

More information is available at www.forbiddenpharmacy.org.

Client Credits: 
Blood Cancer NZ, Bowel Cancer NZ, Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition, Breast Cancer Foundation NZ, Cancer Society of NZ, Cardiac & Respiratory Foundation NZ, Epilepsy NZ, Gut Cancer Foundation, Melanoma NZ, Migraine Foundation Aotearoa NZ, Myeloma NZ, Neuroendocrine Cancer NZ, Ovarian Cancer Foundation NZ, Prostate Cancer Foundation NZ, 
Rare Disorders NZ, Waldos NZ / CLL Advocates NZ, Brain Tumour Support NZ

Agency Credits:  
McCann New Zealand
Dotdotdash New Zealand
FleishmanHillard Aotearoa 
Dusky Dots New Zealand
Supernormal NZ
McCann Media New Zealand