New Zealanders’ use of generic medicines is likely to grow further following the just-completed 2013/14 PHARMAC tender. The tender reached record levels this year, receiving nearly 3500 offers to supply pharmaceuticals from 54 companies.

PHARMAC has now awarded 246 contracts from this tender process, likely to produce savings of approximately $38 million (across hospital and community medicines) over three years.

“The savings from the tender are important for PHARMAC and serve two purposes,” says PHARMAC’s Director of Operations Sarah Fitt. “Firstly we need to make savings to enable us to fund the growing volume of medicine that is used in New Zealand each year.”

“And secondly, it can free up funding that we can then use to invest in new medicines. This enables us to produce greater health gains for New Zealanders, which is what PHARMAC is all about.”

New Zealand already has one of the highest usage rates of generic medicines in the world, according to the OECD Health at a Glance report. The report shows 73% of all medicines used in New Zealand are generics. Only Germany and the UK have higher rates of generics use.

For more details, go to: http://www.pharmac.health.nz/news/media-2014-08-tender/