Two new appointments to PHARMAC advisory committee

PTAC provides PHARMAC with expert clinical advice on pharmaceutical funding applications being considered by PHARMAC, and other clinical matters. Appointments to the committee are made by the Director General of Health.

The two new appointments are Professor Jennifer Martin, incoming Chair of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Newcastle, and Christchurch GP Dr Simon Wynn Thomas.

PHARMAC Medical Director Dr John Wyeth says the two new appointments add to the high calibre of PTAC’s membership.

“PTAC’s advice is one of the foundation stones of PHARMAC’s decisions and it is essential we have the best possible people on the committee,” he says. “So I am delighted that the two new people appointed to the committee will add new knowledge and experience to an already accomplished and highly respected committee.”

Prof Martin is a clinical pharmacologist who has played a leading role in medicine assessment in Australia, both at a state and Australia-wide level. Attending Wellington East Girls College before graduating from the University of Otago school of medicine, Prof Martin was a Rhodes Scholar to Oxford in the UK and is currently head of the Princess Alexandra Clinical School at the University of Queensland, the largest clinical school in the Southern Hemisphere.

She also continues to work as a senior staff specialist and clinical pharmacologist at the Princess Alexandra Hospital.

Dr Wynn Thomas will bring a primary care perspective to PTAC from his work in Christchurch primary healthcare organisation Pegasus Health.  Dr Wynn Thomas has held clinical and non-clinical roles in both primary and secondary care. He is currently the senior clinical leader at Pegasus Health, ultimately responsible for all clinical aspects and governance of this PHO.

Both Prof Martin and Dr Wynn Thomas will attend their first PTAC meetings in August.