As per a new report released on Friday, an increase of $40 million in the pharmaceutical spending resulted into noteworthy surge in the quantum of medicines in New Zealand.

In the year to 30 June 2010, Pharmac financed 20 new medicines and expanded availability of an additional 25 that proved helpful for 150,000 patients a year, as per Pharmac’s 2009-10 annual report. In the same period also, around 45 fresh investments were made by Pharmac.

Without increasing the funding, it was not possible to enhance the availability of funded medicines, as stated by Steffan Crausaz, Acting Chief Executive of Pharmac.

He said, “It was important to prioritise our spending to ensure we met our objective of getting the best health outcomes from the available budget, because it is never possible to fund everything”.

Also, there were more subsidies available to the New Zealanders in the form of funded prescriptions, which were mounted up to 37.1 million.

The newly funded medicines included Dasatinib that treats people with chronic myeloid leukaemia; medications for pulmonary arterial hypertension - Bosentan, Iloprost, Sildenafil; smoking cessation drug Bupropion; and other medicines were Adalimumab, Raltegravir, Rituximab and Gemcitabine.

By availing contractual benefits, Pharmac also saved over $40 million in 2009-10. Though increasing spending, it kept its expenditure within the budget.