Decision to list medical devices supplied by Olympus New Zealand Limited

In summary this will result in:

• 114 of Olympus’ products being listed in Part III of Section H of the Pharmaceutical Schedule from 1 November 2020 under a national agreement that all DHBs may purchase under (“Agreement”); and
• DHBs being able to continue to purchase other suppliers’ brands of obstetrics and gynaecology, and endomechanical and electrosurgical medical devices.

Any changes to the original proposal?

This decision was subject to a consultation letter dated 2 September 2020.

No changes were made to the agreement following consultation feedback.

Who we think will be most interested

• DHB clinical staff in a range of clinical settings including:
  • Obstetricians and gynaecologists
  • Procurement and supply chain personnel
  • Midwives
  • Delivery suite staff
  • Clinical/Biomedical engineers
  • Perioperative staff
  • Central sterile services personnel
  • Surgical, gynaecology and general ward staff
• Suppliers and wholesalers

Details about this decision

In 2018 PHARMAC issued requests for proposals (RFPs) for:

• Supply of obstetric and gynaecology devices and related products;  and
• Supply of endomechanical instruments, electrosurgical instruments, energy platforms and consumable products.

The RFPs requested proposals for non-exclusive national agreements for listing on the Pharmaceutical Schedule.

After completing the RFP evaluation processes, and consulting on the provisional agreement reached with Olympus, PHARMAC has decided to list Olympus’ medical devices, in the categories listed above, in Part III of Section H of the Pharmaceutical Schedule from 1 November 2020.

The list of products will be available on PHARMAC's website from 1 November 2020, in both a PDF document and an Excel spreadsheet.

DHBs can continue to choose which obstetrics and gynaecology, and endomechanical and electrosurgical medical devices they purchase, including those from other suppliers. DHBs that purchase obstetrics and gynaecology, and endomechanical and electrosurgical medical devices from Olympus must do so under the terms and conditions, including pricing, in the Agreement, from 1 November 2020.

The Agreement includes terms and conditions for training and education to be provided by Olympus on the appropriate use of its products, which is to be provided at times as agreed with individual DHBs.

Our response to what you told us

We appreciate the time people took to respond to this consultation.

A summary of the main themes raised in feedback and our responses to the feedback are set out below:

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