Subcutaneous trastuzumab cost-minimisation analysis

OIA response

Thank you for your request dated 28 January 2022 under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) for information relating to subcutaneous trastuzumab. You wrote: 

We are not aware of PHARMAC conducting any fulsome economic assessment on subcutaneous trastuzumab to fully understand potential savings to patients, family/whanau, the rest of the health system, or predict the price reductions associated with trastuzumab biosimilar entry, which is now likely to occur some 7 years after the relevant clinical advice was received. If such an assessment does indeed exist, can you please supply us with a copy via your OIA request pathway. 

Please find a copy of Pharmac’s cost-minimisation analysis for subcutaneous trastuzumab attached with this letter. 

Please note that we approach our assessment of requests for information under the OIA on the basis that once we release the information to you it becomes available to any other party in that exact form (whether by you distributing it to others, or; by virtue of us publishing our response to our website or receiving the same request from a different third party). 

We have redacted some information from the document provided as we consider this is necessary to:

  • protect information where the making available of the information would be likely to unreasonably prejudice the commercial position of the person who supplied or who is the subject of the information (section 9(2)(b)(ii)); and/or
  • enable Pharmac to carry on, without prejudice or disadvantage, negotiations, including commercial negotiations (section 9(2)(j)).

As required under the OIA, we also considered whether, in the circumstances, the withholding of this information was outweighed by other considerations which render it desirable, in the public interest, to make this information available.  In this case we did not consider that the public interest outweighed the reasons for withholding the information. 

Please note you have the right, by way of complaint under section 28(3) of the OIA to an Ombudsman, to seek an investigation and review of our decision.

We trust that this information answers your queries. We are making our information more freely available, so we now publish selected OIA responses (excluding personal details) on our website. Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about this.