Number of enquiries received by Pharmac relating to Shingrix

Thank you for your request dated 3 February 2025 under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) for information relating to Shingrix. You requested:

Can you please provide me with the number of queries, including written and verbal correspondence since June 2022, regarding:

1. funding for the Shingrix vaccine for people over the age of 65,
2. widened access for people from the age of 50
3. funding for people that have missed out during the COVID-19 pandemic
4. funding for people that have previously been vaccinated with Zostavax.

Can I request for the content of the queries, and can they please be categorized by number of health care professionals, individuals, patient support groups or other relevent categories.

On 10 February 2025, we contacted you in order to refine your request. Your original request, as it was worded, was for a large volume of information. We also noted that responding to your request would require significant levels of external consultation. We informed you that this would place an unreasonable degree of strain on the team responsible and would interfere with the day-to-day workings of Pharmac. We also informed you that if If your request remained very large, we may need to refuse your request under section 18(f) of the Act because providing the information you requested requires substantial collation or research.

On 14 February, you agreed to refine your request to the following:

Number of queries relating to the shingles vaccine, including written and verbal correspondence since June 2022, broken down by the following four topics:

1. funding for the Shingrix vaccine for people over the age of 65,
2. widened access for people from the age of 50
3. funding for people that have missed out during the COVID-19 pandemic
4. funding for people that have previously been vaccinated with Zostavax.

May I request that the number of requests please be reported by category – including media, individuals, patient support groups, health care providers or other relevant categories.

Please see in the table below the information requested.

Table 1 - Public enquiries received by Pharmac regarding the shingles vaccine from 1 June 2022 – 31 January 2025, broken down by topic and type of enquirer.

The information above is subject to the following caveats:

1. This information was manually collated from Pharmac’s ‘enquiries’ inbox (enquiry@Pharmac.govt.nz), and Pharmac’s media inbox (media@pharmac.govt.nz). It does not include enquiries received by individual staff members.
2. The ‘grand total’ is the number of discrete enquiries. This number is less than the sum of the table. This is because some enquiries raised more than one topic.
3. Not all enquiries are necessarily complaints or requests to change access. Many of the enquiries were people seeking clarification of the criteria or people asking if they are eligible.
4. The category ‘MPs’ includes staff members working for Members of Parliament such as electoral office staff.
5. There may be some instances of double-counting where an individual has followed-up on a previous query.