Lamotrigine NPPA data

4 December 2019

[name and contact details redacted]

Dear [name redacted]

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

Thank you for your request dated 25 November 2019 under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) for information relating to lamotrigine.  You asked for the number of:

• Lamotrigine NPPA applications received since Friday 15 November
• How many applications have been accepted/declined
• How long it is taking to process lamotrigine NPPAs

We also acknowledge receipt of your email dated 27 November 2019 and note that you stated in your email that you didn’t submit an OIA request. In this respect PHARMAC interpreted your request as a request for official information and the 20 working-day timeframe, stated in our response to you, is in reference to the statutory time limit to respond as required under the OIA.

Please note that we have treated your request with some urgency and provided the information to you as soon as reasonably practicable.

PHARMAC Response

We have interpreted your reference to ‘NPPA’ as meaning ‘exceptional circumstances’.

As at 2 December 2019 we had received 772 exceptional circumstances applications under the widened exceptional circumstances process. Prior to broadening the criteria PHARMAC had received 100 applications, bringing the total number of applications to 872.

453 applications have been accepted and none have been declined since 15 November, under the widened access criteria.

Where exceptional circumstances application forms have provided sufficient information, we have processed them within our target of five working days.

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

Alison Hill
Director, Engagement and Implementation