Pharmac invites feedback before possible medicine brand changes

The annual tender is a procurement process that Pharmac runs each year to manage the supply of a large range of funded medicines in New Zealand.

It is one of the ways Pharmac helps secure ongoing supply of medicines and manages how medicines are funded across the health system.

Money saved through the tender process is reinvested to provide more medicines for more people, either by introducing new treatments or expanding access to existing ones.

When a medicine is no longer under patent, suppliers can sell a generic, often less expensive, version of that medicine. Once a year, we invite suppliers to bid to be the main suppliers of medicines that are no longer under patent. Depending on which supplier’s bid is successful, the funded brand of medicine could change.

The annual tender process begins in July, when we release consultation on a draft list of items that we are considering including in the upcoming tender.

We ask clinicians, consumer advocacy groups, people who use the medicines, and suppliers a range of questions, including whether or not the item should be included in the tender, and what we should consider when reviewing bids and product samples. We also want to understand any support that might be needed if we were to change brands for any of the medicines included in the tender.

Once the consultation closes, we send the information to our Tender Clinical Advisory Committee, which is made up of doctors, pharmacists, nurses and other clinical specialists, for input.

After we’ve considered their advice, we finalise the list of items to be included in the tender and issue an “Invitation to Tender” for these items. This invites suppliers to submit their commercial bids. The tender closes in December, and then we start evaluating the bids.

We then ask some suppliers to send us samples of the medicines they’re bidding to provide as the main supplier. The Tender Clinical Advisory Committee reviews these samples in February or March, where Pharmac staff and Committee members inspect labels, open packages, test creams, taste medicines, shake bottles and discuss what might work best.

Sometimes, the Committee will identify issues with how a medicine is used, which we consider as part of the bid assessment. A crucial step is identifying how a change might impact the people taking the medicine, and what information people prescribing, dispensing, and taking medicines would need to help them understand a potential change in the medicine’s brand.

Our goal is to ensure we provide enough support so people can feel reassured during a change.

We then assess the bid against our decision-making framework, the Factors for Consideration. Specifically, we evaluate whether:

• the supplier can meet demand and has a reliable supply record
• the brand is approved by Medsafe
• the price is sustainable and offers savings that can be reinvested into funding more medicines
• there are groups of people for whom a brand change may not be appropriate. If so, we consider what actions Pharmac can take to mitigate or prevent any negative impacts on these individuals and their families or whānau.

We announce these decisions throughout the year, at the end of every month.

Sometimes Pharmac decides to fund a different brand of medicine than what has been funded before. We do this for a variety of reasons, including to manage supply issues and make more money available to fund other medicines.

The actual medicine has not changed. It is the same medicine but with a different

brand name and sometimes a different appearance or packaging.

Medicines are often sold under more than one brand name. Different manufacturers have different brand names, or sometimes even the same manufacturer produces the same medicine but with different brand names.

You should get the same effect even though the brand may have a different packaging, or be a different colour, shape, size or taste.

The new brand of medicine has been assessed by Medsafe (a unit of the Ministry of Health that approves medicines for use in New Zealand).

If you experience any problems talk to your pharmacist or doctor.

We have not yet made decisions about the brand changes. Your feedback will help inform our decisions, and how best to roll out any changes to the medicines in this list.

One line item means one specific type and strength of a medicine. For example, omeprazole capsules in 10 mg, 20 mg, and 40 mg strengths would count as three separate line items.