Pharmac funds returned to the government

Thank you for your request dated 16 October 2023 under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) for information relating to Pharmac funds. You requested:

How much money has Pharmac given back to the Government over the past five years? Please provide a breakdown per year.

What were the reasons for Pharmac returning this money to the Government?

What was the money used for after it was returned to the Government?

Who made those decisions to return the money to the Government?

Why was the returned money not spent on funding medicines on Pharmac's options for investments list?

It is understood elements of the requested information might not be considered public information. If this is the case, I would ask each element is considered separately, described as best it can be and reasons for any information being declined being set against the information sought.

There may be aspects of the information sought which require names to be redacted to meet section 9(2)(a) of the Act. In situations such as this, I would ask you indicate the employer and position of the person whose name is redacted for the purposes of clarity.

I can advise that no information has been identified as within scope of your request and as such we are declining your request under section 18(g) of the Official Information Act. I can however, advise that Pharmac has not returned any money back to the Government in the last 5 years. This is because Pharmac aims to spend every dollar of the Combined Pharmaceutical Budget (CPB) on treatments New Zealanders need. 

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.