Pūahoaho: updated information about Pharmac’s priority lists

Update Medicines

Pharmac’s quarterly Pūahoaho Report contains the latest information about applications for medicines, vaccines, and related products that we’ve assessed for funding in New Zealand.

It informs the public about current figures and the latest proposals added to the priority lists and gives people certainty about our progress around funding applications.

Proactively releasing this information is part of our ongoing commitment to transparency.

Application priority lists

Every year we receive over 100 funding applications from health care professionals, consumer groups and suppliers. These applications include requests for new medicines and to widen access to medicines that we already fund.

We take these applications to our clinical advisory committees, who use their expertise and assess the available evidence to recommend whether we should fund, defer, or decline them. With their advice, we work to complete an assessment, including a health economic appraisal if required.

We apply the Factors for Consideration throughout our assessment of an application. The factors consider four areas: health need, health benefit, suitability, and costs and savings, which apply to the individual, the family, whānau, society, and the health system.

Factors for Consideration

Once the assessment is complete, we take the application to an internal quarterly prioritisation meeting and add applications to one of three priority lists:

  • options for investment (OFI)
  • only funded if cost neutral or cost saving
  • recommended for decline.

Priority lists for funding applications

Options for investment list

The options for investment list includes applications that we would fund if our budget allowed it. We rank the applications on this list from highest to lowest priority but keep this confidential so we can negotiate the best prices with suppliers.

As of 24 June 2024, there are 147 applications in our options for investment list(external link)

Prioritisation activity in the June quarter

During the June 2024 prioritisation quarter, we ranked 14 proposals on the options for investment list, and re-prioritised 8 others. Re-prioritisation can occur due to more information becoming available, or a change in an application’s Factors for Consideration relative to other funding options.

New proposals ranked (detailed descriptions of indications available on the Application Tracker):

Applications re-ranked:

Only if cost neutral or cost saving list

If our assessment confirms an application does not provide any additional health benefit compared to treatments we already fund, it may be ranked on the only if cost-neutral or cost-saving list. We would look to fund these applications if we negotiated a deal that would be cost-neutral or cost-saving.

Prioritisation activity in the June quarter

During the June 2024 prioritisation quarter, we ranked 6 applications on the only if cost neutral or cost saving list (detailed descriptions of indications available on the Application Tracker):

Recommended for decline list

There are a range of reasons a funding application may be added to the recommend for decline list. Our expert clinical advisors may have recommended that the funding application be declined, or they may have provided a positive recommendation but we’ve found:

  • other more clinically preferred medicines for the same condition are now funded, making the funding application no longer relevant
  • the medicine would provide no additional benefits over other treatments we already fund, or may be harmful
  • the application has been superseded by another funding application
  • no company is supplying the medicine in New Zealand.

When applications are added to this list, they become inactive and we stop progressing work on the application. While applications may be listed on the decline list, they are only formally declined after public consultation to ensure we haven’t missed anything important.

More about this process: Declining inactive funding applications

If we decline an application, it means the medicine would not be funded for the use requested at this time. It does not prevent us from reconsidering funding for the medicine in the future if information becomes available.

Prioritisation activity in the June quarter

During the June 2024 prioritisation quarter, we ranked 19 applications on the recommended for decline list (detailed descriptions of indications available on the Application Tracker):

Learn more

March 2024 Pūahoaho: updated information about Pharmac’s priority lists