Pharmacology & 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 subcommittees provide more specialised advice, on therapeutic areas such as cancer, diabetes or heart disease.
PTAC is made up of senior health practitioners from a range of specialities, 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.
The Committee meets four times a year, and publicly available minutes of those meetings are available here.
PTAC reviews funding applications (19 pages, 106 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, 220 KB)
- Recommended methods to derive clinical inputs for proposals to PHARMAC (37 pages, 332 KB)
PTAC Terms of Reference
PTAC is governed by its Terms of Reference (32 pages, 738 KB). The Terms of Reference also cover the operation of PTAC subcommittees.
We have recently completed a review of the Terms of Reference. The document relating to this review are:
- The consultation letter (2 pages, 126 KB) and background information (9 pages, 151 KB)
- A summary of consultation submissions (28 pages, 232 KB)
- Cover letter for the revised Terms of Reference (2 pages, 76 KB).
Contact PTAC
Contact PTAC via the Advisory Committee Manager.
Page updated on 30 Oct 2008
Linked documents
PTAC members - position description (4 pages, 210 KB)
Pharmacology and Therapeutics Advisory Committee (PTAC) is a committee of vocationally registered medical practitioners with expertise in clinical pharmacology, internal…
Applications received since 1 July 2002 (19 pages, 106 KB)
Applications received for new investments since 1 July 2002: 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…
Version 1.2 of Application Guidelines (13 pages, 220 KB)
GUIDELINES FOR APPLICATIONS TO PHARMAC AND PTAC ON NEW CHEMICAL ENTITIES, NEW INDICATIONS AND FORMULATIONS, COMBINATION PRODUCTS AND GENERIC PHARMACEUTICALS Version 1.2 2005 Minor amendments made December 2006 and May 2008 Please note that these Guidelines are currently under review.…
Recommended methods to derive clinical inputs for proposals to PHARMAC (37 pages, 332 KB)
Recommended methods to derive clinical inputs for proposals to PHARMAC Version 1B 20 July 2005 R8-0-0 #62465 Table of contents Recommended methods to derive clinical inputs for proposals to PHARMAC ….. 1 Table of contents… 2 Context of these recommendations…
PTAC Terms of Reference 2008 (32 pages, 738 KB)
CONTENTS Glossary of terms ….. 3 1 Establishment …. 5 1.1 1.2 PTAC ….5 PTAC Subcommittees …5 Activities of PTAC and PTAC Subcommittees …5 Matters that PTAC and PTAC Subcommittees are to consider …..5 Relationship with PHARMAC…..7 Relationship between PTAC…
PTAC ToR Consultation letter (2 pages, 126 KB)
Thursday 15 May REVIEW OF PTAC’s GUIDELINES PHARMAC is reviewing PTAC’s Guidelines and I would like to invite you to consider the proposed amendments that PHARMAC is putting forward. I welcome your views on those proposals and any further changes…
PTAC ToR Background information (9 pages, 151 KB)
Review of the Guidelines for the Pharmacology and Therapeutics Advisory Committee (PTAC) and its Subcommittees Introduction PTAC is a statutory committee established “to provide objective advice to PHARMAC on pharmaceuticals and their benefits”. PTAC is currently made up of ten…
Summary of consultation submissions (28 pages, 232 KB)
Summary of all submissions to consultation on the draft Terms of Reference for the Pharmacology & Therapeutics Advisory Committee (PTAC) and PTAC Subcommittees (“PTAC ToR”) PHARMAC has recently completed a review of the PTAC Guidelines (now known as PTAC ToR)…
PTAC ToR cover letter (2 pages, 76 KB)
30 October 2008 PTAC Terms of Reference We have recently completed a review of the PTAC Guidelines. The revised Terms of Reference for the Pharmacology and Therapeutics Advisory Committee (PTAC) and PTAC Subcommittees, 2008 (PTAC ToR) are attached for your…
