This election year, Gut Cancer Foundation is joining patient advocacy organisations from across Aotearoa to call attention to New Zealand’s poor access to publicly funded medicines.
The Forbidden Pharmacy is a powerful public awareness campaign highlighting the reality faced by thousands of New Zealanders who cannot access medicines that could improve their quality of life, extend their lives or give them precious additional time with the people they love.
These medicines exist. They are being prescribed and publicly funded in Australia, the United Kingdom and other comparable countries. But here in New Zealand, many remain out of reach unless patients and their whānau can find a way to pay for them privately.
To show what this medicines gap looks like, the organisations behind the campaign have built an entire pharmacy.
A pharmacy filled with medicines patients cannot access
For one day only, Auckland’s Shed 10 will be transformed into the Forbidden Pharmacy - a public installation displaying more than 200 medicines that New Zealand patients need but cannot currently access through public funding.
Every locked medicine represents more than a funding application or a line on a waiting list. It represents a person living with cancer, a rare disease or a serious chronic condition, and a whānau facing difficult decisions about treatment, finances and their future.
Patient stories will be shared throughout the installation, helping visitors understand the real human consequences of delayed or unavailable access to modern medicines.
The campaign is driven by 17 patient advocacy organisations:
Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ
Blood Cancer NZ
Bowel Cancer New Zealand
Brain Tumour Support NZ
Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition
Breast Cancer Foundation NZ
Cancer Society of New Zealand
CLL Advocates New Zealand
Epilepsy Association of New Zealand Incorporated
Gut Cancer Foundation
Melanoma New Zealand
Migraine Foundation Aotearoa New Zealand
Myeloma New Zealand
Neuroendocrine Cancer New Zealand
Ovarian Cancer Foundation New Zealand
Prostate Cancer Foundation NZ
Rare Disorders NZ
Together, we are calling for greater awareness, adequate investment and more timely access to medicines for New Zealanders. In an election year, the campaign aims to ensure medicines access becomes part of the national conversation and receives the political attention it urgently deserves.
Why Gut Cancer Foundation is involved
Gut Cancer Foundation is proud to stand alongside the other organisations behind the Forbidden Pharmacy campaign. For people affected by gut cancers, access to known, effective treatments can be extremely limited. Medicines that have become part of treatment pathways overseas may remain unavailable or unfunded in New Zealand, leaving some patients with the devastating choice of privately funding treatment, fundraising within their community or going without.
One of the gut cancer medicines being highlighted through the campaign is Keytruda, also known as pembrolizumab, for certain people with pancreatic cancer. Keytruda is an immunotherapy that helps the immune system recognise and attack cancer cells, but is not currently publicly funded in New Zealand.
No patient should have to hear that a medicine exists and may help them, but that it is unavailable simply because they live in New Zealand or cannot afford to pay for it themselves.
Gut Cancer Foundation believes New Zealanders deserve timely and equitable access to modern, evidence-based cancer treatments. By taking part in the Forbidden Pharmacy, we are helping bring the experiences of people affected by gut cancers into this important national conversation.
The people behind the medicines
At the heart of this campaign are the patients and whānau who have courageously shared their lived experiences. Speaking publicly about a diagnosis, treatment challenges and the emotional and financial reality of trying to access an unfunded medicine takes enormous strength. These deeply personal stories ensure the campaign is not simply about shelves of medicine - it is about real people, real families and the hope of more time and better outcomes.
We extend our sincere thanks to every patient and whānau member who has trusted the campaign with their story. Your honesty, courage and generosity are helping New Zealanders understand why change is so urgently needed.
Visit the Forbidden Pharmacy
We encourage our Auckland community to join us and visit the installation, hear the stories behind the medicines and stand alongside the New Zealanders calling for change:
📅 Saturday 25 July 2026
⏰ 10am–5pm
📍 Shed 10, 89 Quay Street, Auckland CBD
🎟️ Free entry
🔗 www.forbiddenpharmacy.org
You can also support the campaign by visiting the Forbidden Pharmacy website, talking with your friends and whānau about medicines access, and sharing the campaign through your social media channels.
Every medicine on the shelf represents someone waiting. Together, we can send a strong message to political leaders and decision-makers that New Zealanders need fair, timely and adequately funded access to the medicines that could change their lives.