New Zealanders are waiting almost twice as other countries to get modern medicines.
US pharmaceutical research shows New Zealand's processes for registering, approving and funding modern medicines are the slowest out of 20 OECD countries.
Medicine NZ chief executive Graeme Jarvis says other countries have similar wealth ratings and size - so we can't blame being poor and small.
"You want to give patients the access now, because if they wait too long, they become the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff and the rest of the health system, which is over-worked as it is, is having to deal with the patients in the interim."
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