The price of a life-extending blood cancer drug is set to halve, saving those eligible, tens of thousands of dollars

Pharmaceutical company Janssen is set to bring in a cost-share scheme for some multiple myeloma patients who privately fund the medicine daratumumab

Details of who will be eligible are still to be worked out -- and even those who are eligible, will still face a bill of more than 100-thousand dollars for the first year.

Auckland University Haematologist Rodger Tiedemann says this will be a huge boon for patients who can afford it.

He says unfortunately the cost is still going to be too great for some, even with the discount -- and the Government, via Pharmac, should be funding it for everybody.