New Zealand has less access to new, high-cost medicines than comparable countries and the impact of that on patients can be severe, a review panel has reported.Health Minister Tony Ryall set up the three-member panel in May last year and released its repo
New Zealand has less access to new, high-cost medicines than comparable countries and the impact of that on patients can be severe, a review panel has reported.
Health Minister Tony Ryall set up the three-member panel in May last year and released its report today.
It says although New Zealand spends less on medicines per capita than comparable countries, it pays less for them and achieves better value for money than most because of Pharmac's effective purchasing.
"Nonetheless, we have been convinced during the course of our review that New Zealand has less access to new, high cost medicines than other countries, in particular Australia," the panel says.
"At an individual patient level, the impact of not having access to some medicines can be severe. Some patients (and their friends and families) pay a high personal price in terms of their poor health – in the extreme, resulting in death."
The report says that because New Zealand achieves relatively good value for money from the medicines it buys overall – and spends more on health care as a percentage of GDP than the OECD average – there was no evidence that health outcomes overall were worse than comparable countries.
The report puts forward three options on ways to increase access to high-cost medicines:
• Increased government spending;
• Increased patient co-payments on prescriptions overall; and
• Reducing wastage, meaning better value for money, in the medicines system and/or the health system overall.
It recommends the third option, although it doesn't rule out the first two.
"Many problems concerning access to high-cost, highly-specialised medicines were identified in the course of our review, along with significant problems with New Zealand's medicines system overall," it says.
"By improving the medicines system and also the health system overall, we expect that access to high cost medicines, as well as other medicines, will increase."
Mr Ryall said the report was the result of a lot of research and consultation.
"The Government is also receiving advice on the possible expansion of Pharmac's role into areas of hospital medicines, vaccines and some medical devices as recommended by the Ministerial Review Group," he said.
"These two pieces of work cover some similar areas, so we will be considering all of the advice together and making announcements before the end of the year."
The Researched Medicines Industry Association (RMI) welcomed the report and said its recommendations would be carefully studied.
"The panel has listened carefully and objectively to all the submissions made," said RMI chief executive Denise Wood.
"The Pharmac model needs to evolve in order to address the ever increasing gap between New Zealand and the rest of the world in terms of access to medicines. The RMI looks forward to working with the Government on taking these recommendations forward."
The review panel members were Dr Paul McCormack, a GP and independent health adviser, Joy Quigley, a former MP, and Paul Hansen, an economist at the University of Otago.
