Tuesday, 2 March 2021, 9:18 am
Patient Voice Aotearoa (PVA) welcomed the Government’s
indication that it will announce a review of its drug
purchasing agency Pharmac. Since its inception, PVA has
asked for more scrutiny of a system which sees thousands of
kiwis stranded without appropriate pharmaceutical options,
or with vastly inferior treatment options, for illnesses and
conditions which are treated as a matter of course by
countries less economically able than New Zealand. The lack
of a considered or coherent medicines strategy and the
piecemeal approach to funding drugs has led to gross
inadequacies in the standard of care in Aotearoa. As many