The new report highlights progress and persistent gaps in the country’s medicines system. File photo.
Photo: CC BY-NC 2.0 Gatis Gribusts
Pharmac needs more staff and a bigger operational budget to speed-up decisions on drug funding, say patient advocates.
In a report released today, the agency has been criticised for a focus on cost efficiency over health outcomes, and for slow decision-making and backlogs.
The report – written by Patient Voice Aotearoa and Medicines New Zealand and titled “Valuing Life – Medicines Access Summit 2025 Report” – is based off the findings of a two-day hui at Parliament in October last year.
Hosted by Deputy Prime Minister and Associate Minister of Health responsible for Pharmac David Seymour, the event brought together 180 people, including patient groups, clinicians, government officials, academics, and pharmaceutical industry representatives for a series of panels and workshops.
The report highlighted progress and persistent gaps in the country’s medicines system, noting “while some progress has been made, delivery remains uneven” and several foundational reforms “have not been started or addressed fully”.
Key findings highlighted in the report include:
Progress is fragile without political leadership and accountability
New Zealand continues to lag behind OECD peers
Pharmac continues to be greatly underfunded
Patients’ groups and clinicians are calling for a system that values timeliness, transparency, and lived experience
Global pressures are reshaping medicines access
A call for partnership and long‑term reform
Patient Voice Aotearoa chair Dr Malcolm Mulholland said two thirds of those recommendations had seen progress made since the summit, but a third were yet to see action.
Mulholland is also the chair of the consumer and patient working group, which was set up last year to work alongside Pharmac’s board overseeing a 12-month reset programme currently underway, which is aimed at making Pharmac more open and responsive.
“[Pharmac] are going to need a bigger a bigger operations budget to do a lot of the work around the health technology assessment,” he said.
“If we’re looking to speed it up, ultimately they are going to need more staff in those positions, so that’s why the operations budget is so important.”
Finance Minister Nicola Willis referred questions to Seymour’s office.
Seymour said while it was still a work in progress, for the first time in years Pharmac was “genuinely moving in the right direction”.
“We’ve given patients a stronger voice, appointed a consumer working group, and made Pharmac more transparent. We will continue to push Pharmac in the direction the patient community wants.
“Five years ago many of the Medicines Summit attendees would have been picketing outside Pharmac. This year, they were having genuine conversations with each other and Pharmac’s leadership about how to deliver the best service for Kiwis.”
This government had allocated a budget of $6.294 billion over four years, and a $604 million uplift.
“With that money, Pharmac has made 133 decisions to fund or widen access to medicines. This includes decisions on 46 cancer medicines. Over 200,000 patients have benefited.”
Pharmac chief executive Natalie McMurtry said Pharmac had appreciated the opportunity to attend the summit for the past two years, and it had provided an invaluable opportunity to hear first-hand from patients, advocates, suppliers and clinicians.
Since then, they had recruited more health economists to increase Pharmac’s capacity to assess funding applications, she said, and were trailing faster, more efficient assessment pathways which were showing early signs of success.
“We are also exploring how adopting a societal perspective can help us better demonstrate the value of new treatments, particularly when considering significant investments.
“Recently, we launched a review of our Exceptional Circumstances Framework, which allows Pharmac to consider funding medicines for certain individuals in special or exceptional clinical situations.”
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