The Wire with Caeden

Pharmac has announced its decision to fund the drug, Enhertu, used for slowing the advancement of the HER2-positive form of breast cancer, beginning on the 1st of January, 2025. Alongside this funding, two eligibility restrictions will be removed.

HER2-positive breast cancer is an aggressive form of breast cancer, where the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 protein is present, and encourages the growth of cancer cells.

Producer Athena spoke to Chief Executive at the Breast Cancer Foundation New Zealand, Ah-Leen Rayner, about how Enhertu compares to other breast cancer medicines, the removal of eligibility restrictions, and how the Breast Cancer Foundation pushed for this change.

For Dear Science this week, our expert Doctor Cushla McGoverin chatted with us about what latrines teach us about people, climate variation affecting Chinese dynasties, and invasive species becoming threatened. 

In our weekly catchup with the National Party, Wire host Castor spoke to MP Tom Rutherford about the government’s police staffing targets and changes to national insulation standards. 

They also spoke to Associate Professor Steve Hoadley about the geopolitical consequences of the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. 

Producer Athena spoke to Medical Director at the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation New Zealand, and Professor at the University of Otago, Bob Hancox, about Pharmac’s decision to fund respiratory medicines: pali-vizu-mab, and a new triple inhaler.

And they spoke to the Breast Cancer Foundation New Zealand's Chief Executive, Ah-Leen Rayner about Pharmac’s decision to fund a new breast cancer drug, Enhertu

As of last week the government's methane review report was slammed by Greenpeace for what they say  is the coalition government manipulating of numbers of shirk responsibility in the fight against climate crisis. 

This comes as a result of livestock being one of the biggest contributors for man-made methane within Aotearoa and especially within the meat & dairy industry. 

Producer Yesenia spoke to Greenpeace’s Agricultural Campaign Spokesperson Amanda Larsson about the impacts the review has on an agricultural scale, possible strategies to reduce methane production from the meat and dairy industry and the prospects of reducing methane for the future. 

As of recently, X formerly known as twitter has seen an exodus of its artistic community ending their time and moving to a new platform called Bluesky. 

The change comes as a result that X would be using visual art to train its AI programs leading many artists to end their time with the Elon Musk hosted app.

Producer Yesenia spoke to Associate Professor in Faculty of Arts at the University of Auckland, Neal Curtis, about artists moving to Bluesky for its moderation policies, How Bluesky is holding space for Artists of any medium to share and how the site is benefitting from this rise of new communities.