Hon David Seymour
Associate Minister of Health 

Associate Health Minister David Seymour says he is proud of the Government’s commitment to increasing medicines access for New Zealanders, resulting in a big uptick in the number of medicines being funded.

“The Government is putting patients first. In the first half of the current financial year there were more new medicines funded than the entire financial year prior,” says Mr Seymour.

”Increasing availability of medicines has always been a priority of mine. Access to pharmaceuticals for many is life or death, or the difference between a life of pain and suffering or living freely.

“To reflect that, this government allocated Pharmac its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, and a $604 million uplift.

“When Pharmac is given the financial support it needs to carry out its functions - negotiating the best deals for medicine for New Zealanders – it does so effectively, as shown in 2024.

“More financial support means more buying power for Pharmac to deliver for Kiwis, as shown in Pharmac’s negotiations with AstraZeneca for a savvy multi-product deal.

“In the first half of the current financial year (since June 2024) Pharmac expanded access to 34 new medicines. That is six more than the entire 2023/2024 financial year.

“Included in those 34 new medicines are Pembrolizumab (branded as Keytruda) and Cetuximab (branded as Erbitux).

“Continuous Glucose Monitors have also been funded since August for nearly 12,295 Kiwis with type 1 diabetes.

“2024 also saw Pharmac increase its contracted medical devices for hospitals to $640 million on medical devices for hospitals, almost $100 million more than 2023. That includes nearly $50 million in national contract expenditure for medical devices, including major contracts for sterilisation, surgical implants, anaesthetic machines, and more.

“Pharmac was not just doing more but also streamlining processes to do things faster.

“Named Patient Pharmaceutical Assesment (NPPA) times were significantly reduced in 2024. An NPPA assesment is the process for considering funding for a treatment for individual patients, who are seeking funding for treatments that are not listed in the Pharmaceutical Schedule.

“Pharmac aimed to complete 50% of NPPA decisions made within 10 working days every month. This target was exceeded with responsiveness improving each month since February. In October 93% of NPPA applications were closed within 10 working days.

“Changes were also made to allow parallel assessments for all medicines so Pharmac can assess funding applications at the same time Medsafe is assessing the application for regulatory approval.

“For the first time Pharmac has its own Minister. Last year I outlined in my letter of expectations that Pharmac should have appropriate processes for ensuring that people living with an illness, along with their carers and family, can participate in and provide input into decision-making processes around medicines.

“We want to build a world-class health system, and that requires access to world-class medicines.”

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