COVID-19 vaccine contracts
Thank you for your request dated 30 April 2024 under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) for information relating to COVID-19 vaccine contracts. Please find a response to each part of your request below.
Please provide copies of the New Zealand vaccine contracts redacting what information is not yet publically available so we can distinguish that from what is publically available - this has become a very confused situation.
This part of your request has been refused under the following sections of the Act:
- section 9(2)(b)(ii), to protect the commercial position of the person who supplied the information, or who is the subject of the information,
- section 9(2)(ba)(ii), to prevent damage to the public interest; and
- section 9(2)(c), to protect the health or safety of members of the public.
You may already be aware that, on the recommendation of the Ombudsman(external link), the Ministry of Health worked with officials from Pharmac and Treasury, and in consultation with the COVID-19 vaccine suppliers, to develop a summary statement of the COVID-19 contracts for public release.
What are the start and end dates of the financial obligations contained in each contract.
The financial obligations are noted in the summary statement of the COVID-19 contracts for public release. In addition to this, the obligations, including the supply and purchase of vaccines, remains in place for the Pfizer and Novavax agreements. The agreement for the purchase and supply of vaccines by AstraZeneca and Janssen were concluded in 2022.
What are the total financial obligations of the pandemic contracts. Could you graph that individually and as a combined total?
Releasing the specific financial obligations of the COVID-19 vaccine agreements would prejudice the commercial position of the vaccine suppliers (AstraZeneca, Novavax, and Pfizer/BioNTech) and prejudice Pharmac’s ability to negotiate. Therefore, this part of your request has been refused under the following sections of the Act:
- Section 9(2)(b)(ii); and
- Section 9(2)(j) of the Act, to enable negotiations to be carried on without prejudice or disadvantage.
Mr Reti as Minister of Health stated in December that this year's May budget would not contain ongoing funding of covid products but existing funding allocated by the previous administration could still be used:
Did that existing funding satisfy all the obligations within the pandemic contracts?
Are there options within the pandemic contracts allowing for ongoing purchases of products that will not be used?
Of the funds provided by the previous administration for covid products how much if any remains unallocated.
If there are unallocated funds will those funds still be used for the purchase of covid products or another purpose?
Using election weekend as a starting point, please list all orders, purchases and transactions relating to the ongoing purchase of covid products?
Information regarding the purchasing of COVID-19 vaccines can be found at:
Pharmac is not able to comment on May 2024 budget announcements. Pharmac can advise that available existing funding will satisfy the rights and obligations of the agreements with COVID-19 vaccine and treatment suppliers and that there is currently no unallocated funding. Note that that the management of COVID-19 vaccines was transferred to Pharmac from 1 July 2022 and the funded has been managed as part of the Combined Pharmaceutical Budget(external link) since 1 July 2023.
Pharmac has sought vaccine supply to ensure continuity of supply under the existing eligibility criteria. Since 14 October 2023, Pharmac has raised orders for 908,160 doses of COVID-19 XBB.1.5 strain vaccine with stock arriving between 1 January and 30 June 2024.
Referring to this week's announcement of increased funding for Pharmac purchases
How much funding if any will Pharmac receive as an increase in its current funding rather than any post budget funding allocated in May?
If Pharmac does receive increased funding pre budget will any of that funding be used to meet outstanding contractual obligations from the pandemic contracts.
Will further purchases of covid products be considered by Pharmac within the scope of any additional funding provided for the current year?
Information pertinent to the Pharmac budget announcement on 29 April 2024 can be found at:
Government saves access to medicines(external link)
Further information regarding the 2024/25 Budget will be released on the Pharmac website in due course.
This link also contains a broad variety of information concerning the Pharmac budget & funding which you may be interested in.
Please note that in making our decision, we have considered the public interest considerations in section 9(1) of the Act. No public interest has been identified that would be sufficient to override the reasons for withholding that information.