Blog
RSS FeedPosted by Michael Wonder on 15 Aug 2021
PHARMAC invites entire staff to top secret drug ranking meetings
16 August 2021 - Highly confidential meetings where PHARMAC ranks the funding priority of potentially life-saving medicines are open to ...
Posted by Michael Wonder on 29 Jul 2021
Cancer patients, advocates 'gobsmacked' PHARMAC declining funding application for life-changing drug
29 July 2021 - Ovarian cancer patients and advocates are "utterly gobsmacked" Pharmac has proposed to decline a funding application ...
Posted by Michael Wonder on 28 Jul 2021
PHARMAC commits to being more transparent
28 July 2021 - For the first time, PHARMAC is sharing its priority lists for all funding applications for medicines ...
Posted by Michael Wonder on 19 Jul 2021
Decision to fund rasagiline
16 July 2021 - PHARMAC is pleased to announce the decision to fund rasagiline (Azilect) a new treatment for people ...
Posted by Michael Wonder on 01 Jul 2021
PHARMAC is seeking views on declining funding applications
29 June 2021 - PHARMAC is considering declining 97 inactive medicine funding applications. ...
Posted by Michael Wonder on 09 Jun 2021
Stop blaming PHARMAC - we'd be worse off without it
10 June 2021 - Penny Tucker is concerned that there are “miracle drugs and biologics that have transformed many conditions ...
Posted by Michael Wonder on 21 May 2021
PHARMAC to work with others to improve communication
21 May 2021 - PHARMAC accepts the Coroner’s comments that not all information about the brand change reached patients. ...
Posted by Michael Wonder on 04 May 2021
Andrew Little not pleased with Children's Commissioner comments on potential PHARMAC move
4 May 2021 - Heath Minister Andrew Little says he expects better of the Children's Commissioner after he described a potential ...
Posted by Michael Wonder on 06 Apr 2021
Decision to widen access to secukinumab for psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis
1 April 2021 - PHARMAC is pleased to announce a decision to widen funded access to secukinumab (Cosentyx) for the ...
Posted by Michael Wonder on 17 Mar 2021
Mythbusting PHARMAC
17 March 2021 - The agency is seeking to dispel some misunderstandings about what it does and how it does ...
Posted by Michael Wonder on 17 Mar 2021
PHARMAC’s drug switch
17 March 2021 - PHARMAC's generic drug swap for epilepsy treatment saved $30 million over five years. But for some ...
Posted by Michael Wonder on 08 Mar 2021
Pacific pharmacists want inclusion on PHARMAC review
6 March 2021 - The President of the Pacific Pharmacists’Association, Kasey Brown, says a review of New Zealand’s drug buying ...
Posted by Michael Wonder on 08 Mar 2021
Jacinda Ardern responds to heartfelt plea from PHARMAC funding advocate Malcolm Mulholland
8 March 2021 - Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has responded to a heartfelt plea by Malcolm Mulholland, a man advocating ...
Posted by Michael Wonder on 07 Mar 2021
PHARMAC does a great job, but it's losing the PR battle hands down
6 March 2021 - With each major change of government in recent years, PHARMAC has been required either to list ...
Posted by Michael Wonder on 11 Jan 2021
Evaluating New Zealanders’ values for drug coverage decision-making: trade-offs between treatments for rare and common conditions
8 January 2021 - The objectives of this study were to measure the relative societal importance of values of New Zealanders ...