New Zealand's Drug Subsidy Policy Under Fire By The RMI

While US drug companies have failed to have New Zealand placed on the301 watch list (Marketletter May 12) because of claims that its drug subsidy policies have denied them access to that market (which has a value of some $503 million, with US firms accounting for 29%), the issues remain, and these companies are likely to keep up the pressure at a senior trade level, according to the Researched Medicines Industry, an NZ-based drug industry lobby group.

At the end of this year or early next, consideration will probably be given to whether or not they make an updated submission, noted RMI chief executive Kim Miles. Mr Miles told Reuters that companies face delays in being able to get access into the NZ market because of some of the ways that Pharmac (the country's pharmaceutical management agent, which decides which medicines receive government funds allocated to the NZ public health system) operates. US drugmakers claim that Pharmac will not subsidize new medicines unless they are offered at prices lower than currently-available competing drugs in the same therapeutic class.

Pharmac rejected that claim, and noted that it is pleased that Washington DC had seen through the drugmakers' "saber-rattling." Pharmac general manager David Moore told Reuters that "it is good to see that fairness has been the winner in what really is an industry having a tantrum because it cannot get its own way."