March 2011 – submission to Pharmac on the review of the exceptional circumstances scheme (pdf file). ATM expressed its great concern that Pharmac’s review, while improving efficiency for many medicines covered by exceptional circumstances, will actually make access much more difficult for highly specialised medicines.

February 2010 – submission to the Ministerial Review Panel on access to high-cost medicines. ATM coalition’s submission to the Ministerial panel set up to report on ways to improve access to high-cost, highly specialised medicines. The interim report of the panel dated December 2009 can be accessed at this link (PDF).

25 June 2008 – ATM submission to Pharmac on their review of guidelines and terms of reference for the Pharmacology and Therapeutics Advisory Committee (PTAC) (pdf file – requires Acrobat Reader, which can be downloaded at this link).

PTAC is the expert committee that advises Pharmac on medicines and their benefits. In this submission we emphasised that PTAC’s advice must be objective, independent of Pharmac influence, reflect the changed decision criteria in the medicines strategy, should clearly differentiate clinical utility from cost utility considerations, and should consider the needs of sub-populations as well as whole populations.

13 April 2007 – ATM submission to the Ministry of Health on their consultation “Towards a New Zealand Medicines Strategy” (Word format, pdf format)

19 March 2007 – ATM response to Pharmac’s discussion paper on high cost pharmaceuticals (pdf)

5 May 2006 – Review of direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines (DTCA) regulations in New Zealand (pdf)