The backlash against Pharmac continues, with claims that oncologists advising the agency feel "compromised" by limited funding. 

Breast cancer patients are amongst those calling for a review of the drug purchasing agency over concerns about their priorities.

Amongst those unhappy with her response is cancer advocate Malcolm Mulholland, who was one of the first to call for an inquiry. 

His wife suffers from Stage 4 breast cancer. She spoke at health select committee a few weeks ago about her fight for funding new breast cancer drugs.

Yesterday, Pharmac chief executive Sarah Fitt defended their practices. She told Larry Williams that a capped budget means they can only invest in certain drugs, and the breast cancer drugs that patients are calling for - Ibrance and Kadcyla - were not viewed favourably by their experts.

She says that the cost of the two drugs may not stand up compared to their quality. 

However, Mulholland told Larry Williams that he does not know how Fitt would know that when PTAC, Pharmac's advisory council, has yet to make their decision about the drugs. 

"We know that if you bulk buy drugs by a drug buying agency you get essentially a half price discount. We would expect such statements once they were at that point in the process, but as it stands at the moment, they're not." 

He says that Pharmac has yet to release their minutes from a meeting in February where they discussed Ibrance. 

Fitt also argued that Pharmac is making the right choices as cancer survival rates in New Zealand are the highest in the OCED. 

• Pharmac defends not funding expensive breast cancer drugs

Mulholland says he does not believe that, as he was at a select committee meeting where the Ministry of Health presented findings that go against that claim. 

"They made the bombshell admission that they do not collate data by stage, so therefore they have no way of knowing how long on average some lives in New Zealand once they've been diagnosed with cancer."

He says that relates to all cancer, not just breast cancer. 

Mulholland claims that he has been told by some of the oncologists that are advising Pharmac that they are compromised due to limited spending. 

He says that in New Zealand, Pharmac's budget is 4.7 per cent of the vote health budget.

"If we are to compare oursleves to Australia, the UK and other OECD countries, they on average spend 10 per cent of their vote health budget on their medicine spend."

He says that we need to double our medicine spend.