This is the text extract for Hospital pharmaceuticals – update, browse documents here.

18 October 2011

Hospital Pharmaceuticals - Update

Work on creating a single national list of pharmaceuticals to be available in DHB hospitals – a national Preferred Medicines List (PML) – is now well underway. We are working through different therapeutic areas individually, and are working closely with DHB hospitals, relevant Colleges, professional societies and PTAC subcommittees in order to inform our decisionmaking process on which products should be included in a national PML. Once we have sufficient clinical advice on each therapeutic area, we will be undertaking wide consultation with all interested parties before we make any decisions. We expect that such consultation will occur for the first few therapeutic areas in the first half of 2012, and that we will be starting to consult on new sections each month. New funding applications Although we do not expect that a national PML will be in place until 2013, we have decided to accept new funding applications for hospital-only products from January 2012 (applications received in January would be eligible to be considered by PTAC at its May meeting). We hope that this will prevent new pharmaceuticals that come to market between now and 2013 from falling in a gap between different funding systems. DHBs will still be able to make their own decisions on funding of hospital pharmaceuticals until a national PML comes into force, however we expect that DHBs will be cautious in the adoption of new products to local formularies over this period, given uncertainty of those products being included in a national PML. The process for considering funding applications for hospital pharmaceuticals will be the same as for community pharmaceuticals. Those wishing to submit a funding application should be aware of the Guidelines for Funding Applications to PHARMAC, and the PTAC meeting dates and timelines, which are available on our website at: http://www.pharmac.govt.nz/fundingapps You may also like to be aware of existing funding applications that we may have for the same product – information on the funding applications that we have received since 2008 is available through the application tracker our website: http://www.pharmac.govt.nz/applicationtracker We are also starting work on developing some of the key policies and rules relating to a national PML, such as a framework for funding non-PML pharmaceuticals in certain circumstances. We anticipate that we will be seeking feedback from interested parties on these topics sometime in the new year. If you have any questions about this work, please feel free to contact Sean Dougherty, Funding Systems Development Manager, at sean.dougherty@pharmac.govt.nz, or on 04 916 7534. A435567 Page 1 of 1