Questions and Answers on budget increase
Answers to common questions following the Government's announcement of a budget increase for Pharmac.
The Government is giving Pharmac an additional $604 million over 4 years to fund or widen access to many more medicines, including cancer medicines. Pharmac and Health New Zealand will also receive funding for implementation costs over that period.
As of now, Pharmac estimates that the additional funding will cover approximately:
- 26 cancer medicines for a number of cancer types, including thyroid, bowel, breast, bladder, lung, head and neck, prostate, liver, ovarian, kidney and four different blood cancers. This includes treatments covering all of the cancer types covered by the list of 13 cancer treatments proposed previously plus other types not previously included (such as blood cancers).
- 28 other medicines that will include medicines for a wide range of conditions including infections, respiratory conditions, osteoporosis, sexual health, dermatology, inflammatory conditions, and mental health.
This list is subject to change as new medicines are being developed all of the time and Pharmac considers the best available clinical evidence when assessing medicines for funding.
Of the 13 cancer treatments identified in 2023, up to 7 will be included and the remaining 6 will be replaced by alternatives as good or better. That means there will be medicines funded for each of the cancer groups in the original list. However, it is too soon to identify the specific medicines that will be available to treat these cancer groups. Pharmac needs to go through its usual robust, open and fair processes, negotiating with suppliers, and consulting the public, particularly clinicians and people living with health conditions. That means Pharmac is not yet in a position to name the specific medicines that will be available. We will share this information with you as soon as we can, as we know that people with cancer and their clinicians will want to work through the eligibility criteria to access these medicines.
The team at Pharmac is ready to start work immediately to get these medicines to the people who need them as soon as possible. As part of our usual process, we do a lot of work behind the scenes so that when funding becomes available to us, we are able to work at pace and coordinate with Health New Zealand and other key stakeholders so that patients can benefit.
Pharmac estimates about 175,000 people will receive medicines made available with the additional funding in the first 12 months.
Pharmac is beginning this work by looking at the medicines on its Options for Investment (OFI) list to see which ones would offer the best value for people with cancer and other health conditions through the Government’s additional funding package.
Pharmac then needs to negotiate with suppliers, reach agreements on supply terms and dates for when the new medicines will be available, consult publicly to gather feedback and inform the final funding proposal, and then make final decisions about funding the medicine.
Given the number of steps involved, the earliest some of the new medicines are likely to start being funded will be October or November this year.
We will obviously need to talk with suppliers to make sure they can provide the medicines we need, in the amounts needed and when we want them to be available. Pharmac already has strong relationships with many suppliers from the work we already do with this, and we will be able to get these discussions with suppliers started right away.
Pharmac also wants to hear from people living with health conditions, clinicians, consumer advocacy groups and clinical organisations, as well as our health sector partners.