An Auckland woman who is self-funding treatment for her rare, aggressive breast cancer is fed up after years of asking the government to fund a “life-saving” medicine for more patients.
Catherine Cooke, 54, was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) in November 2024 after her yearly mammogram.
Cooke sold her business to pay for Keytruda (also known as pembrolizumab), the only targeted treatment to fight TNBC, given to patients alongside chemotherapy.
Around 10 to 15 percent of breast cancer diagnoses are triple negative, and it is indeed the most challenging type of breast cancer to treat – notably at the advanced stages, according to Breast Cancer NZ.
But despite Keytruda being recommended by Medsafe for both early and advanced stage of TNBC over two years ago, it had only been funded for advanced patients – not for patients like Cooke with early-stage TNBC.
All up, Cooke said she expected to pay about $100,000 for Keytruda, with one cycle every three weeks costing her $3000.
“We put the house and the business on the market to see if one or both would go. We ended up selling the business at a $700,000 loss because we simply couldn’t afford to pay for a business and treatment at the same time.
“It’s absolutely devastating. the guilt that I feel, I mean, basically, I’ve worked my whole life pretty much for nothing.”
Keytruda is funded for early stage TNBC in more than 40 countries, including Australia, the UK and Canada.
In New Zealand, Keytruda is only funded for patients with advanced TNBC, head and neck cancer, colorectal cancer, bladder cancer and Hodgkin lymphoma.
“You get this diagnosis, and you would think there’s treatment available because it’s standard worldwide to give people Keytruda for early-stage TNBC, and to not have it here is absolutely gut-wrenching,” Cooke said.
“I had to make a decision to either pay to live or not pay and go Russian roulette, which is what most people have to do. Right now, only a handful, a minority with money, can access treatment through the private health care system.”
In November 2025, Cooke presented a 17,000-signature strong petition to widen access to funded Keytruda to the Petitions Select Committee.
She said the committee told her Keytruda for early-stage TNBC had been placed on the Options for Investments List, but there was no timeline for when or if it would be publicly funded.
she said she was told it could take up to a year for an update.
“That absolutely blew me away. In fact, it left me distraught and in tears, wondering why I’d even turned up.
“All we’re doing is moving a chess piece on the board. I want to know what the actual plan is.
“But I have to have hope that now it’s on the investment list for funding, the problem sits with the government and not with Pharmac.”
in November 2025, Pharmac [ said it was considering trimming the list of over 100 medicines awaiting funding] to provide patients with more clarity.
Cooke said she wanted Finance Minister Nicola Willis to meet with her in person.
“I want to sit down with her woman-to-woman to let her know that early int
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