How does the operation of PHARMAC's 'Community Exceptional ...

The test-questions now need to be published and introduced to the health policy
readership. In doing so, such publications may encourage some collaborative
research on the use of the questions by other researchers in both health and
non-health decision making jurisdictions.
There are many actors and institutions that rely on PHARMAC contracts and
appointments to committees and panels to gain access to information or to
engage in decision making. Further research utilising critical social theory raises
the possibility of discovering the power interests being served by the awarding of
contracts and the appointments to these actors and institutions. Such research
touches on distributive justice by examining the functional relationships between
PHARMAC and DHBs, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, medical
academics, medical professional associations and colleges, and other
professional interests (e.g., pharmacists, nurses, midwives).
Similarly, further research into the economic efficiency of PHARMAC and its
outputs would develop knowledge about what is implied (or generally believed)
about PHARMAC’s performance. This research might look into how the
principles of economic welfare and Pareto efficiency can be applied to
PHARMAC’s subsidising decisions. This would include an examination of
PHARMAC’s use of the exemption from Part 2 of the Commerce Act. This
exemption plays a large part in the economic performance being achieved by
PHARMAC’s current policy settings. This kind of research would offer another
way of looking at the ‘value for money’ equation other than the much discussed
cost-utility analysis.
Finally, PHARMAC’s governing legislation (the NZPHDA 2000) recognises and
respects the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. It does so in response to the
Crown’s desire to improve the health status of Maori and reducing health
disparities between Maori and non-Maori. However, income disparities and social
inequalities have been discussed in this thesis as possibly more powerful drivers
of ill health than access to health services and medicines. PHARMAC would be
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