Pharmacology and Therapeutics Advisory Committee (PTAC)
PTAC is PHARMAC’s primary clinical advisory committee. Its role is to provide objective clinical advice to the PHARMAC Board. PTAC's members are appointed by the Director-General of Health in consultation with the PHARMAC Board.
The Committee considers and makes recommendations on, amongst other things:
- applications for funding pharmaceuticals
- amendments to the Pharmaceutical Schedule, where there are clinical issues to consider
- the management of the Pharmaceutical Schedule
- the need for reviews of specific drugs, or groups of drugs.
PTAC is made up of 10 practising doctors, who consider clinical evidence around funding applications, and take into account nine decision criteria before making recommendations to PHARMAC. The position description for PTAC members is available here (4 pages, 210 KB).
The current list of PTAC members is here.
PTAC is governed by its guidelines, which are available to view here (20 pages, 271 KB). The Committee meets four times a year, and publicly available minutes of those meetings are available here.
PTAC reviews funding applications (16 pages, 112 KB)from pharmaceutical suppliers, health professionals and consumer groups. Guidelines for making these submissions are available here:
- Guidelines for Submission to PHARMAC and PTAC on New Chemical Entities and Generic Pharmaceuticals (13 pages, 198 KB)
- Recommended methods to derive clinical inputs for proposals to PHARMAC (37 pages, 268 KB)
Contact PTAC
Contact PTAC via the 
Advisory Committee Manager.
Page updated on 14 May 2008
Linked documents
Position description for PTAC members (4 pages, 210 KB)
Pharmacology and Therapeutics Advisory Committee (PTAC) is a committee of vocationally registered medical practitioners with expertise in clinical pharmacology, internal…
Pharmacology and Therapeutics Advisory Committee (PTAC) Guidelines (20 pages, 271 KB)
PTAC is a committee of vocationally registered medical practitioners with expertise in clinical pharmacology, internal medicine and general practice. The primary purpose of PTAC is to provide PHARMAC with objective advice on pharmaceuticals and their benefits.
Applications received for new investments since 1 July 2002 (16 pages, 112 KB)
As published in the Guidelines for the Pharmacology and Therapeutics Advisory Committee (PTAC) and its Subcommittees 2002, PHARMAC is, from 1 July 2002, making the existence of applications for new investments (including clinical proposals to widen access) publicly known by publishing them (including the name of the applicant) on PHARMAC’s website.
Section 5: Guidelines for Suppliers’ Submissions (13 pages, 198 KB)
GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSIONS TO PHARMAC AND PTAC ON NEW CHEMICAL ENTITIES AND GENERIC PHARMACEUTICALS 2005 (amended December 2006) A97845 - Section A: Requirements for Submissions for New Chemical Entity Pharmaceuticals 3 1 Introduction….. 3 2 General Matters Concerning Applications…. 3…
Recommended methods to derive clinical inputs for proposals to PHARMAC (37 pages, 268 KB)
The following recommendations are made to help suppliers and others most effectively propose to PHARMAC new products (mainly pharmaceuticals) to be funded through the New Zealand Pharmaceutical Schedule. The recommendations cover both clinical data submitted to PHARMAC’s Pharmaceutical and Therapeutics Advisory Committee (PTAC) and clinical data submitted to PHARMAC as part of economic analyses.
