The wait could be soon over for new cancer drugs in New Zealand.

The National Party's promising to ring fence $280 million over four years to fund 13 new cancer drugs which are used in Australia.

It will be funded by restricting fee-free prescriptions to superannuitants and those on low incomes.

The Cancer Society's medical director Kate Gregory told Kate Hawkesby this would fill the treatment gap between New Zealand and Australia.

She says it can be distressing for someone living here to find out they could have access to different cancer drugs across the Tasman.

LISTEN ABOVE