11 May 2020 - Medicines New Zealand welcomes the Government’s announcement of new investment in the medicines budget as any additional funding is a good thing for a system which is woefully underfunded.
Nevertheless, it shows both a lack of compassion and a failure to protect New Zealand’s most vulnerable patients who need better access to medicines. The system is still clearly broken.
The DHBs’ medicines budget, which is managed but not owned by PHARMAC, has not kept up with population growth and inflation since 2007.