Government drug-buying agency Pharmac will remove a load of applications for drug funding from its waiting list because it is unlikely to ever approve them.
Pharmac's chief executive Sarah Fitt said the move, as part of an overhaul of its decision-making process, would give a better insight into what medicines were and were not being actively considered for funding.
Pharmac was proposing to decline a number of funding applications that were sitting open in the application system but unlikely to ever be funded.
"We have open applications for medicines with little or no evidence that they work better than other medicines, with proof that they could cause people harm, or with no company able to supply the medicine in New Zealand," Fitt said.
"Unfortunately, we'll never be able to fund everything, and we can't justify using taxpayers' money to fund medicines that aren't better than treatments we already fund.
"We've heard from New Zealanders that they want Pharmac to make definitive decisions on funding applications, so they can have some certainty, even if this is a decision to decline funding."
Pharmac wants other changes to increase transparency and reduce the time medicines spent on the waiting list, including making its online application tracker easier to understand and publishing summaries of clinical experts' advice and recommendations faster.
Pharmac was seeking public feedback on the first group of eight applications it was proposing to decline and would not make a final decision until it had been considered.
"Feedback from this consultation will help us make decisions on the eight medicines and it will also help us determine if our consultation approach works for people who are interested in and want to contribute to our decision-making," Fitt said.
A decline now would not stop any future application should new evidence emerge later that warranted the drugs being funded.
