Ethnicity data for pembrolizumab

Thank you for your request dated 9/8/2023 under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) for information. You requested:

Thank you for your recent response to our OIA request for data on pembrolizumab.

I note you have been unable to provide ‘’ the additional breakdown of the data by dispensing hospital and ethnicity data as that could compromise patient confidentiality (section 9(2)(a)of the OIA).’’

We are currently working on a strategy to try and improve equitable access to Keytruda for Māori and Pacifica patients in NZ and are seeking some sort of data that can help support this, hence the request.

Please can you advise if it would be possible to have the dispensing data split into ‘’Māori or Pacific’’ and ‘’Non- Māori/Pacific’’ (rather than a full breakdown of ethnicities therefore limiting the potential of compromising patient confidentiality) and back dated to 1 April 2023 for the pembrolizumab lung cancer data? I appreciate any data set <6 people would not be included due to section 9(2)(a).

We are pleased to provide you with the information for your request in the excel spreadsheet attached.

We have updated the dispensing and special authority data for this request. We were able to split the dispensing data into ‘Māori/Pacific peoples’ and ‘other’ (being all non-Māori and non-Pacific ethnicities).

For the Special Authority applications tables, we were unable to provide ethnicity data due to incomplete ethnicity data held by Pharmac (section 18(g) of the OIA).

Where 6 or fewer people are counted, we have changed the number to "<6" as we believe this is necessary to protect the privacy of these people (section 9(2)(a) of the OIA).

We trust that this information answers your queries. Please note, you have the right to make a complaint to the Ombudsman about our response to your OIA, under section 28(3) of the OIA. Details of how to make a complaint(external link) are on the Ombudsman’s website.

To make information more freely available, we publish selected OIA responses (excluding personal details) on our website. Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about this.