We don't have lawsuits, for two reasons. First, Pharmac has an exemption from the Commerce Act, so there aren't lawsuits—company versus Pharmac—for that reason. We also have a public insurance-based system called Accident Compensation that deals with accidents only, not illnesses. That system was put in place also to prevent lawsuits from being prevalent in New Zealand. They're not impossible, but they tend not to happen.
With regard to your comment, it's very hard to get data on who's missing out. It's much easier to get data on who is taking medicines, but that leaves a big gap in terms of how many people are missing out.
In the absence of data, we measure how much noise there is out there in the community about people who are not getting access. People think we have a pretty good system, by and large, until they or somebody very close to them develops a disease and is presented with a lack of access to something that their doctor knows would help them with the illness that they have by treating them or curing them. We have had some pretty high-profile public cases in which patients have taken petitions to Parliament, stood on the steps of Parliament. Recently we had a case of melanoma treatment where that exact thing happened. That person's just been awarded the New Zealander of the Year title for 2016.
There is disquiet out there. Many of the patient groups are very vocal and lobby hard because of the lack of access to drugs that they know they would have automatic access to if they lived in Australia, Canada, or the United Kingdom.
The balance is really important. I would like to see much greater transparency around the Pharmac decision-making process, and we would like to see government committing more to the amount of funding that they allocate to Pharmac for pharmaceutical funding.