Special Authority and funding data for anti-epileptic medicines

OIA response

13 July 2020 

Dear [name and contact details withheld]

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

Thank you for your request dated 15 June 2020 under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) for information relating to anti-epileptic medications.  You asked for a range of data on specified anti-epileptic medicines, in the years ending 30 June 2018, 2019, 2020. Specifically, you asked for:

  • Special Authority approvals for initial and renewal applications for the relevant period
  • Subsidised units in the community for each relevant period
  • Purchased units in the DHB hospitals for each relevant period
  • Number of unique patients dispensed in the community for each relevant period
  • Number of unique patients dispensed in the community for each relevant period by ethnicity
  • Total annual gross PHARMAC spend on Epilepsy medicines
  • Patients aged under 10 on 3 concomitant Anti-Epileptic Drugs (AEDs) in a given year

Please find attached the data you have requested. Note that instances where there were low numbers of patients (<10) have been indicated as such, to protect the privacy of individual patients.

Please note that the data for the year ending 30 June 2020 may be incomplete. There is a time lag from when a pharmaceutical is dispensed to when PHARMAC can access the information. Pharmacies may claim reimbursement up to 6 months after a dispensing. 

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

Download the data released with this OIA response