Dunne Peter: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Dunne Peter: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:627;Page:21953] 
1. Hon PETER DUNNE (Leader—United Future) 
 to the  
Minister of Health 
: Is the Minister satisfied with the funding of Pharmac; if so why? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Acting Minister of Health) 
: 
 Yes I am. Pharmac and district health boards have agreed upon a pharmaceutical budget for 2005-06. The budget for that year is $582.86 million including $3 million for the Cancer Control Strategy. That budget is almost $20 million higher than last year. We are already negotiating a new 3-year budget for the coming years. 
Hon Peter Dunne 
: How does the Minister therefore explain to the sufferers of multiple sclerosis Alzheimer’s disease rheumatoid arthritis Parkinson’s disease and other debilitating conditions—all of whom cannot get the medications they need—that neither Pharmac nor the district health boards requested any additional funding for those conditions during the last financial year and that Pharmac managed to underspend its 2003-04 budget by some $20 million? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: Madam Speaker to quote the questioner to himself he has said that we all accept that there cannot be unlimited pharmaceutical spending. Pharmac has a very robust and independent process of assessing every application for new drugs in this country. Labour stands by that independent process and believes that Pharmac is doing an outstanding job. 
Steve Chadwick 
: Has the Minister seen any information that compares New Zealand rates of subsidised medicines with rates in other developed countries? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: Yes. The Canadian Institute for Health Information report on drug expenditure in Canada for the years 1985 to 2004 found that Canada subsidises 37.5 percent of medicines sold the US subsidises only 19.5 percent and Germany subsidises 74.8 percent. In comparison New Zealand subsidises nearly 80 percent of medicines. 
Barbara Stewart 
: Is the Minister aware of any plans that Pharmac may have to introduce the compulsory assessment of new hospital medicines in effect allowing Pharmac to decide what new medicines will be available in New Zealand hospitals; if so does the Minister intend to allow that extension of Pharmac’s operations? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: I am not aware of any intentions in that direction at all. Pharmac works with district health boards to decide on an annual basis through an independent process which drugs will be subsidised. 
Heather Roy 
: Will the Minister instruct Pharmac to abandon sole supply and to purchase several brands of critical medicines as it has been forced to do with the flu vaccine and after the public fiasco regarding Ventolin and Salamol so that New Zealanders can be assured of continuity of supply for essential medications? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: We do ensure continuity of supply. There are issues that occur from time to time. Following the influenza experience we will now have two suppliers of those medicines in the future. Ventolin will be subsidised along with the other product Salamol. I am very confident in the process we have to ensure that New Zealanders get access to the best possible drugs at reasonable prices. 
Hon Peter Dunne 
: Does the Minister’s confidence extend to our ability to deal with H5N1 the avian bird flu and to the fact that at the moment we have enough vaccine available from the drug Tamiflu to vaccinate only one in five New Zealanders should that flu become established here? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: I understand that that is an international challenge. The Ministry of Health is working through with Pharmac to make sure that we are in the best position possible should such a terrible outbreak occur. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Why is the Minister’s administration like the previous administration seeking to defy gravity and allowing Pharmac to boast that drug supply in this country costs one-third of the average spent on drug supplies in OECD countries and 54 percent of that spent in Australia which is surely testimony to the fact that New Zealanders are getting by on Third World drugs? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: No as I pointed out before we have one of the highest levels of subsidised drugs in the world. Pharmac has been able to negotiate as sole purchaser some very good deals with international suppliers of those drugs. 
Hon Peter Dunne 
: Can the Minister confirm that the Australian Government has already taken steps to ensure that any vaccine made available in Australasia would as a first priority be available for Australians and then for people in Singapore; and that Pharmac the body he lauds so much has in fact done nothing to order contingency supplies or to ensure that if there is an outbreak of avian flu in New Zealand we are in line for any supplies of available vaccine from our near neighbours or other parts of the world? 
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR 
: I do not accept that Pharmac has done nothing. It is continually updating itself with information from around the world on such possible epidemics. As I said I have every confidence that we will be in a secure situation should such a terrible outbreak occur. We work with the Australians in many areas—this one as well.