In June 2024, Pharmac received a $604m funding increase after backlash when the commitment to blood cancer patients failed to materialise.

Tim Edmonds from the Forbidden Pharmacy campaign group told Checkpoint that National’s new commitment will make a difference to New Zealanders waiting for access to medicine, and he’s pleased that so far two parties – National and ACT – have costed medicine access in their election pledges.

However, Edmonds said $604m won’t be enough to fund all the medicines on Pharmac’s recommended list – the Options for Investment list (OFI).

He said these are medicines that Pharmac have evaluated for what they would return to New Zealand.

“These are medicines that Pharmac have said offer value for money for New Zealanders, so it makes our health system more efficient, it helps get people back into work and be productive, and be able to be parents and be part of their communities,” he said.

Edmonds said this year Pharmac put out a bid for $800m over four years to fund medicines on the OFI list.

He said his group is calling for a sustainable longer-term view of funding medicines in New Zealand, which he said is already falling behind other OECD countries.

A 2025 report by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research showed that New Zealand spends 4.9 percent of the health and disability budget on medicines, compared to the OECD average of 13.3 percent.

Edmonds said they don’t want the issue to be politicised and for his group to have to advocate for what is a right in other countries.

He said he has spoken to patients who held hope when promises, which did not eventuate in reality, were made to myeloma patients in the last election.

“There’s a lot of devastated patients out there,” said Edmonds.

Edmonds said independent polling by Talbot Mills indicated that 82 percent of New Zealanders across the political spectrum thought it was critically important to fund medicines Pharmac is recommending, and seven out of 10 thought policies in this area would sway how they voted.

It’s asking other parties to commit to the same seven-year path so that a change of government doesn’t derail it.