Agreement with St Jude Medical New Zealand Limited for the supply of interventional cardiology devices

This was the subject of a consultation letter dated 21 October 2015.

In summary, the effect of the decision is that:

• A range of interventional cardiology devices will be listed in Section H, Part III, (‘Optional Pharmaceuticals’) of the Pharmaceutical Schedule from 1 December 2015.
• DHB hospitals can purchase these items either directly from St Jude or through a designated third party logistics provider under the national agreement.
• For the DHBs that currently use these products the national agreement will deliver savings.

Details of the decision

Following a Registration of Interest document issued in April 2014, PHARMAC has entered into an agreement with St Jude for the supply of a selection of interventional cardiology devices to be listed on the Pharmaceutical Schedule. This means that DHB hospitals may purchase these products under the national agreement at the new pricing.

The list of products will be available from 1 December 2015, in both PDF and Excel spreadsheet formats. 

There are estimated savings to DHBs that currently use these products of approximately $228,000 per annum nationally, based on current usage.

The agreement is not exclusive. DHBs can continue to purchase other brands of interventional cardiology devices at their discretion.

Educational services will be provided by St Jude to DHB personnel on appropriate use of its interventional cardiology devices and will be arranged in a format and at times as agreed with individual DHBs.

Certain devices associated with left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) were included in the  provisional listing agreement with St Jude. On 23 October 2015 the National Health Committee (NHC) released a recommendation that LAAO should not be publicly funded due to insufficient evidence on safety and clinical effectiveness[1]. On this basis, Schedule One of the agreement will be amended to remove these devices, and the LAAO associated devices will not be listed on the Pharmaceutical Schedule.

Feedback received

PHARMAC appreciates all of the feedback that it has received and acknowledges the time people took to respond. All consultation responses received by 11 November 2015 were considered in their entirety in making a decision on the proposed changes.

A summary of the feedback received is provided in the table below:

More information

If you have any questions about this decision you can email PHARMAC at enquiry@pharmac.govt.nz or call our toll free number (9 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday) on 0800 66 00 50.