4708 (2024). Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall to the Associate Minister of Health

4708 (2024). Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall to the Associate Minister of Health: What progress, if any, has been made in the last quarter (September to December 2023), toward the strategic priority ‘enhance key functions’ as part of Pharmac’s statement of intent, as discussed on page 36 of the Pharmac Review final report?

Hon David Seymour: I am advised that the quotation from the review refers to a strategic priority from Pharmac’s previous Statement of Intent (SOI), at the time of the review. Pharmac’s current SOI priorities are different. Therefore Pharmac did not report formally against that priority for the quarter ending December 2023. For the last quarter, under its current strategic priority of “Enhanced assessment and decision-making”, Pharmac reported on actions including increasing consumer input; efforts to improve the timeliness of assessment and decision-making (including metrics); and reducing the backlog of applications and proposals.