Pharmac’s response to the Pharmac Review Final Report

Thank you for your request dated 7 June 2022 under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) for information relating to Pharmac Review Final Report. You requested::

Any internal/external correspondence, notes, files or briefings re. Pharmac’s a) communications/media strategy or b) response to the release of the final Pharmac Review from 3 March 2022 - present.

Ie, copies/details of any internal communications, notes or briefings re. Pharmac’s response to the final review or any communications between Pharmac and the following parties re. Its public response to the final review report:

• the Director General of Health
• the Ministry of Health
• MP Andrew Little
• The Pharmac review panel
• Any other MPs or Political Parties
• Media

We have understood your request relates to the Pharmac Review Final Report(external link) and the related Government response to the independent review of Pharmac(external link). Please find a copy of the requested documents attached with this response letter. Details about the documents released/not released are provided below.

Pharmac’s communications/media strategy in response to the Pharmac Review Final Report

Pharmac did not prepare a communications or media strategy for the release of the Pharmac Review Final Report. Therefore, we have not provided any correspondence, notes, briefings, etc, for this portion of your request as the documents requested do not exist (section 18(e) of the OIA).

We drafted key messages about the Pharmac Review Final Report, and we have provided a copy of the key messages within the document attached with this response. However, it was verbally agreed that Pharmac would direct all questions to the Minister of Health’s office as the report was commissioned by the Minister, not Pharmac.

Communications etc, about Pharmac’s response to the Pharmac Review Final Report

We have not included copies of documents where these are already publicly available (section 18(d) of the OIA). A list of the documents that have been excluded from release, as they are already publicly available, is below.

• Pharmac Review Final Report(external link)
• Organisational approach to equity, anti-racism and te Tiriti o Waitangi(external link)
• Equity in Pharmac economic modelling(external link)
• Methodology and source materials for analysis of Pharmac decision-making(external link)
• Cabinet paper: Government response to the Pharmac Review Panel’s report(external link)
• Attachment to the Cabinet Paper: Pharmac Review Panel recommendations – summary of agency comments(external link)
• Social Wellbeing Committee minutes(external link)
• Confirming Cabinet minutes(external link)

As you are aware, 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.