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Story: Health advocacy and self-help

Drug funding

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Drug funding

In the 2000s the Prader-Willi Syndrome Association of New Zealand argued that all children diagnosed with this genetic disorder should receive fully funded growth-hormone treatment. In 2006 Tom McLellan's parents, Rachel and Shaun, were paying $18,000 a year for growth hormone injections, because Tom was 5 millimetres too tall to qualify for subsidised treatment through funding agency Pharmac.

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Otago Daily Times

by Rosie Manins

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How to cite this page

Rosemary Du Plessis and Anne Scott, Health advocacy and self-help – Genetic disorder organisations, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/28066/drug-funding (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Rosemary Du Plessis and Anne Scott, published 5 April 2011.