List of most most costly and most prescribed medications
Sam Wagener made this Official Information request to Pharmaceutical Management Agency
The request was refused by Pharmaceutical Management Agency.
From: Sam Wagener
Dear Pharmaceutical Management Agency,
My name is Sam Wagener, I am writing to request. under the official information act, the following information if it is available:
- The top 100 dispensed drugs in New Zealand for 2017 by community pharmacies (All strengths of the same medicine counted as one, e.g. Metoprolol 23.75, 47.5 etc would just be Metoprolol)
- The top 100 most expensive drugs (by how much money was paid in subsidies for the drug, not just the price of drug as listed in the schedule.)
- The number of prescriptions written for each different controlled medications (Both C and B and their respective subclasses) across all available doses for the respective products (e.g. for Oxycodone IR - I would like to know how many of the Oxynorm 5mg, 10mg and 20mg were prescribed) by primary care doctors throughout 2017
I hope this request is not too arduous and I understand commercial sensitivity concerns and as such would be fine with brand names being excluded (in fact I would prefer generic names.)
Yours faithfully,
Sam Wagener
From: Web Enquiry
Pharmaceutical Management Agency
Thank you for your email. We are looking into your query and will get back
to you as quickly as possible. Please note, our response time may vary
depending on the nature of your request.
[1]Keep antibiotics working
[2]https://www.pharmac.govt.nz/keepantibiot...
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References
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2. https://www.pharmac.govt.nz/keepantibiot...
From: Web Enquiry
Pharmaceutical Management Agency
Dear Sam
Thank you for your request below under the Official Information Act, 1982.
The information requested appears to be more closely associated to the functions and responsibilities of the Ministry of Health.
Both MOH and PHARMAC hold information relating to the first two points. However, PHARMAC does not hold data on prescriptions written for controlled drugs.
Accordingly, we are transferring the request to the Ministry of Health under Section 14 of the Official Information Act 1982. They will be in touch with you accordingly.
Kind regards
Donna Jennings | Communications Advisor
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PHARMAC | PO Box 10 254 | Level 10, 40 Mercer Street, Wellington
DDI: +64 4 901 3234 | P: +64 4 460 4990 | F: +64 4 460 4995 | www.pharmac.govt.nz
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From: Sam Wagener
Hiya,
Thanks for the response - I very much appreciate you forwarding on the relevant information to the MOH for me.
Yours sincerely,
Sam Wagener
Pharmaceutical Management Agency
Dear Sam
Thank you for your request for official information which was transferred
from PHARMAC, and received by the Ministry of Health on 18 December 2018.
The Ministry's reference number for your request is: H201808627. If you
need to contact us at any stage about your request, please quote this
reference number in your correspondence.
You requested:
- The top 100 dispensed drugs in New Zealand for 2017 by community
pharmacies (All strengths of the same medicine counted as one, e.g.
Metoprolol 23.75, 47.5 etc would just be Metoprolol)
- The top 100 most expensive drugs (by how much money was paid in
subsidies for the drug, not just the price of drug as listed in the
schedule.)
- The number of prescriptions written for each different controlled
medications (Both C and B and their respective subclasses) across all
available doses for the respective products (e.g. for Oxycodone IR - I
would like to know how many of the Oxynorm 5mg, 10mg and 20mg were
prescribed) by primary care doctors throughout 2017
As required under the Act we will endeavour to respond to your request no
later than 7 February 2018, being 20 working days after the day your
request was received.
If we are unable to respond to your request within this time frame, we
will notify you of an extension of that time frame.
If you have any queries related to this request, please do not hesitate to
get in touch.
Yours sincerely,
Jan Torres
Advisor
Ministerial Support Services
[email address]
Ministerial Services l Government Services l Office of the Director
General
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Pharmaceutical Management Agency
Dear Sam
I am writing further to your email/request for Information regarding:
H201808627
As set out in section 12 of the Official Information Act 1982, if you wish
to pursue obtaining information not in the public domain, you may be asked
to provide evidence that you meet the requirements of the Act, set out
below:
Section 12
(1) Any person, being—
(a) a New Zealand citizen; or
(b) a permanent resident of New Zealand; or
(c) a person who is in New Zealand; or
(d) a body corporate which is incorporated in New Zealand; or
(e) a body corporate which is incorporated outside New Zealand but which
has a place of business in New Zealand,—
In this instance, the Ministry requests that you provide evidence to show
that you meet the requirements as set out in section 12.
The Ministry will proceed to processing your request once this has been
received.
We would appreciate it If you could please provide the required
document(s) by 16 January 2019.
For further information please refer to the OIA legislation link below:
[1]http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/publi...
Please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.
Yours sincerely,
Jan
Advisor
Government Services
Office of the Director-General
Ministry of Health
[2]www.health.govt.nz
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Pharmaceutical Management Agency
Dear Mr Wagener
Please find attached a letter regarding your request for official
information.
Yours sincerely
Ministerial Support Services
[email address]
Ministerial Services l Government Services l Office of the Director
General
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Mr Rodgers left an annotation ()
This seems worthy of a complaint to the Ombudsman, especially since the same agency answered the same question to the same requester in February 2017.
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