Even two years ago, some politicians were still willing to describe Pharmac as “the envy of the world” — as Health Minister Andrew Little did bizarrely in December 2021 while at the same time releasing a scathing interim report into the government’s drug-buying agency.
Once a standard phrase routinely trotted out by government representatives, only a delusional politician or bureaucrat would praise Pharmac in such glowing terms today. The past few years have put it under immense pressure — not least because stories of patients denied drugs that are publicly funded overseas have become depressingly familiar fixtures in the news media.
