Pfizer medicines purchased by Pharmac

Thank you for your request dated 16 May 2024 under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) for information relating to medicines, vaccines and medical devices produced by Pfizer. You requested:

A list of medicines and medical devices produced by Pfizer which were purchased by Pharmac from 2018 to 2023.  Please also provide the approximate value of these purchased medicines.Please advise the number of Cominarty XBB.1 doses purchased by Pharmac. 

Please advise whether the purchase of Pfizer's Cominarty XBB.1 was part of an Advance Purchase Agreement previously signed by the Government?  Were there any ongoing financial (or other) obligations within an Advance Purchase Agreement (or other legal agreement) with Pfizer to purchase these updated covid-19 vaccines?  Please explain.

Please find a table below setting out purchases by Pharmac of Pfizer medicines, medical devices and vaccines, from the 2018/19 financial year to 2022/23 inclusive:

The table shows the products purchased by Pharmac directly from Pfizer and how much we have spent on each product between the 2018/19 and 2022/23 financial years.

Between 1 July 2022 (when Pharmac took responsibility for managing the APA agreements) and 30 June 2023 Pharmac purchased a total of 2,060,160 doses of Comirnaty. The value of Comirnaty vaccines and Paxlovid tablets purchased is withheld on the basis of maintaining confidentiality on purchase pricing under the following sections of the Official Information Act:

• 9(2)(b)(ii) to protect the commercial position of the person who supplied the information, or who is the subject of the information;
• 9(2)(ba)(i) to protect the supply of similar information in the future,
• 9(2)(j) to enable negotiations to be carried on without prejudice or disadvantage

Under Pharmac’s contract negotiation model, the prices paid for products are considered commercially sensitive and their disclosure would impact Pharmac’s ability to negotiate for products in the future.

In regard to the other Pfizer products, Pharmac is a funder, and we do not purchase most products directly. The vaccines and treatments outlined above are the only products we have purchased directly. We believe it would require substantial collation to identify all Pfizer products as staff would have to manually assess hundreds of data points across multiple systems and databases, including seeking information from third parties, to compile a complete list for Pfizer.

For context, Pfizer products are included in the following categories:

• Subsidized pharmaceuticals dispensed through the community or hospital
• Hospital purchases
• Medical devices
• Vaccines (including COVID-19)
• COVID-19 treatments
• Haemophilia products

As such, we are refusing the rest of your request under section 18(f) of the OIA as the information cannot be made available without substantial collation or research.

Pharmac has purchased (taken delivery and paid for) 756,960 doses of Comirnaty XBB.1.5 strain COVID-19 vaccine. These vaccines have been purchased under the terms of the APA agreement between Pfizer and Pharmac (novated from the Ministry of Health). The agreement includes a mechanism for Pharmac to purchase COVID-19 vaccines to meet the ongoing needs of New Zealanders, including updated strain vaccines. Further information on the APA agreements, including legal obligations can be found in the summary statement on the Ministry of Health website(external link).