Technology Assessment Reports for pembrolizumab in advanced melanoma

14 January 2019

[name and contact details redacted]

Dear [name redacted] 

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION 

Thank you for your request dated 29 November 2019 under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) for information relating to Technology Assessment Reports (TAR).  You asked for: 

• Technology Assessment Reports (TAR) for pembrolizumab in advanced melanoma, as per the Feb 2016 PTAC minutes this is TAR No. 271, 

• Any updates to TAR 271 that may have occurred since then. 

PHARMAC Response 

Please find attached the TAR for pembrolizumab in advanced melanoma (TAR271), and an updated version TAR271a. 

Please note that PHARMAC approaches its assessment of requests for information under the OIA on the basis that, once released, the information becomes publicly available - in other words once we release the information to you it becomes available to any other party in that exact form (whether by you distributing it to others or by virtue of us receiving the same request from a different third party).  We have redacted a small amount of information from the documents as we consider this is necessary to: 

• protect information where the making available of the information would be likely to unreasonably prejudice the commercial position of the person who supplied or who is the subject of the information (section 9(2)(b)(ii)); 

• protect information which is subject to an obligation of confidence or which any person has been or could be compelled to provide under the authority of any enactment, where the making available of the information would be likely to prejudice the supply of similar information, or information from the same source, and it is in the public interest that such information should continue to be supplied (section 9(2)(ba)(i)); and 

• enable PHARMAC to carry on, without prejudice or disadvantage, negotiations, including commercial negotiations (section 9(2)(j)). 

As required under the OIA, we also considered whether, in the circumstances, the withholding of this information was outweighed by other considerations which render it desirable, in the public interest, to make this information available.  

In this case we did not consider that the public interest outweighed the reasons for withholding the information.  

We trust that this information answers your queries.  We are making our information more freely available, so we will now publish selected OIA responses (excluding personal details) on our website.  Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about this. 

Yours sincerely 

Alison Hill
Director, Engagement and Implementation