Health committee  We're in Wellington.

Health committee  That's right.

Health committee  Thank you very much for inviting us to come and to give our view about our Pharmac model here in New Zealand. I've been chair of Medicines New Zealand for five years, and prior to that I was a member of Parliament in the New Zealand Parliament for 10 years. For much more of my c

Health committee  Thank you. I'm not sure how much you know about the New Zealand medical system, but it is a largely socialized medical system. It has many similarities to the Canadian system. You might want to ask some more questions about that later on, but we thought we would go straight to t

Health committee  Our view is that wait times are too long, and there's no guarantee any medication that is put before Pharmac will be funded. The clinical committee considers applications and makes recommendations to the Pharmac board, which says yes or no to the funding and gives it a priority o

Health committee  Some people here would say it's a very low copayment in New Zealand. It's a maximum of $5, depending on what the cost of the medicine is, and no family is asked to pay for more than 20 prescriptions every year. It's not as huge a barrier as one might anticipate. Frequently, for f

Health committee  I think there are a number of reasons. Adherence is a factor, so it's not just not filling prescriptions. Not taking some of the medicines that people have collected is also a significant problem. Many organizations, including us and Pharmac, have turned our minds to this. I th

Health committee  You raised the point when you were talking to Matthew about the comparison, and you said that New Zealand is at the bottom of the OECD list, and that is absolutely correct. For a first world country, we believe this is unacceptable. We do take a very long time to get access to me

Health committee  Your comment was quite right. A particular medicine, though approved, might not suit every patient. One of the difficulties we have in New Zealand is that because there is often a sole-supply issue—one medicine in a family of medicines is chosen for funding, and others aren't—c

Health committee  Yes, it is.

Health committee  All of our companies are multinational companies operating in New Zealand.

Health committee  Yes. I can't promise to give them all here off the top of my head—

Health committee  —but they are Novartis, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Sonovion, GSK—

Health committee  —Roche, Bristol-Myers, I think I said, and Biogen.

Health committee  Shall I continue?