Posted by Michael Wonder on 12 Jun 2018
Bunbury mother’s fight to get drug that would give her two-year-old son the chance to grow old
10 June 2018 - The mother of two-year-old Connor Barrett just wants her son given the chance to grow old and suffer less.
Along with hundreds of other Australian families, Taryn Barrett from Bunbury is pleading with the country’s medicines regulators to approve a drug for cystic fibrosis, Orkambi, which could extend her son’s life by 23 years.
But the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee has knocked it back for government funding three times, and there are concerns the drug manufacturer Vertex will walk away if its fourth application is rejected next month.
Mrs Barrett says more than 3000 submissions have been made to the PBAC, which will meet in Canberra on July 3 and is expected to announce its decision on Orkambi on August 17.
