The government drug-funding agency PHARMAC will be changing and is now considered to be more flexible when it comes to the treatments it will pay for. The PHARMAC’s board has approved the Exception Circumstances criteria which mean that people will no longer have to have a unique or rare condition in order to be eligible for treatment.

The Exceptional Circumstances scheme will assess patient’s applications individual and treat patients with medicines that aren’t funded elsewhere. PHARMAC currently assess over 2000 applicants in one year.

Chief Executive, Matthew Brougham states that PHARMAC’s preview structure was too restrictive and claims: “The new scheme is more permissive and more clearly describes PHARMAC’s discretion to consider funding applications not meeting the letter of the scheme”.

The new plan will include cancer and community treatments, clarity for clinicians on what is being fully funded and applications costing less than $500 for Pharmaceuticals will be approved by eligible DHBs.

The changes that are being made will mean more spending on exceptional medicines which is expected to double from $4 million to $8 million.