Fulvestrant subsidised since April 2020 

4 May 2021

Dear [name and contact details withheld] 

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION: FULVESTRANT SUBSIDISED SINCE APRIL 2020

Thank you for your request dated 9 April 2021 under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) for information relating to fulvestrant. You requested:

The units subsidised by month for fulvestrant… For the last 2 years.

Please note, fulvestrant was listed on the Pharmaceutical Schedule in April 2020. 

The data requested has been provided within the tables below. 

Table 1: Fulvestrant injections subsidised under the Community Schedule (Section B)

Note:

• Data represents the volume of fulvestrant injections subsidised in the community since fulvestrant was listed on the Pharmaceutical Schedule. This is based on pharmacy dispensing claims.
• Data for the most recent months may not be complete. Pharmacies can claim subsidies up to 6 months after a dispensing. There is also typically a 1-2 month delay from when a pharmaceutical is dispensed to when PHARMAC can access the information. 

Table 2: Fulvestrant injections purchased under the hospital Schedule (Section H)

Note:

• Data represents purchases of fulvestrant injections made by DHB hospitals since fulvestrant was listed on the Pharmaceutical Schedule. These figures are based on purchase data provided by DHBs. The product information has been interpreted by PHARMAC from the product description provided by DHBs.
• Community claims (out-patient dispensings) from hospital pharmacies may have been subtracted from the purchase data provided. This may result in apparent negative figures in the Section H purchasing data.
• Purchase data for the most recent months is not yet available. 

We trust that this information answers your queries. We are making our information more freely available, so we will now publish selected OIA responses (excluding personal details) on our website. Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about this. 

Yours sincerely

Rachel Read
Manager, Policy and Government Services