29 July 2025
Erika Whittome
Via email:
[FYI request #31313 email]
Tēnā koe Erika
Request for information: Conflicts of Interest Statements
Thank you for your request received on 2 July 2025 under the Official Information Act 1982
(OIA) for information relating to Conflict of Interest statements. You requested:
Last week Robert Kennedy dismissed all 17 members of the US CDC federal
vaccine advisory panel accusing them of conflicts of interest (presumably with the
vaccine and/or pharmaceutical manufacturers).
For the New Zealand Immunisation Advisory Service and its committee, would you
please share the conflicts of interest statements for all its members? This would be in
line with 'Conflict of Interest Management' from the Office of the Auditor General.”
Your request has been refused in full under the following sections of the Act:
• Section 9(2)(a), to protect the privacy of natural persons; and
• Section 9(2)(ba)(i) to protect information that is subject to an obligation of confidence
and making it available would likely prejudice the supply of similar information, or
information from the same source.
Our rationale for withholding this information is that there is a strong public interest in
members of Specialist Advisory Commit ees (SACs) being candid in identifying conflicts and
bringing them to the attention of their colleagues and Pharmac. Members are encouraged to
proactively identify and review possible conflicts of interest and ensure that any conflicts are
promptly addressed. They do so on the understanding that the process is carried out on a
confidential basis.
If the the declared interests for the Immunisation Specialist Advisory Committee was to be
released, it would have a chil ing effect on the candidness of information regarding interests,
which would undermine the declaration of interest process. There is a stronger public interest
in protecting this process than there is in releasing this information under the Act.
However, included below is an overview of interests, conflicts of interest and the process for
dealing with them. Please let us know if you have any follow-up queries regarding the
conflict-of-interest process at Pharmac.
2025-26-003
Members of the Pharmacology and Therapeutics Advisory Committee (PTAC) and SACs
must declare in interest if:
• If they may derive a
financial benefit from
the matter,
• If their
spouse, civil union partner, de facto partner, child, or parent may derive a
financial benefit from the matter,
• If they hold a
financial interest (e.g. shares); or
• They are ‘
otherwise directly or indirectly interested’. This can include medical
interests or related employment.
Once an interest has been declared, the Chair of the commit ee can make the following
rulings:
• No conflict (e.g. because the interest is remote).
• Conflict, but participation permitted under Board Chair’s Standing Permission. This
could include participating in discussion but not voting.
• Conflict, with specific permission to be sought from Board Chair for participation.
• Conflict, with the member to be excluded from relevant items (Chair to specify items).
You can also find further information about the obligations of commit ee members in the
PTAC Terms of Reference, which can be found at:
https:/ pharmac.govt.nz/assets/ptac-terms-of-reference.pdf
In making our decision, we have considered the public interest considerations in section 9(1)
of the Act. No public interest has been identified that would be sufficient to override the reasons
for withholding that information.
Please note, you have the right to make a complaint to the Ombudsman about our response
to your OIA, under section 28(3) of the OIA. Details of
how to make a complaint are on the
Ombudsman’s website.
To make information more freely available, we publish selected OIA responses (excluding
personal details) on our website. Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about
this.
Nāku noa, nā
Oliver Whitehead
Team Leader, Government Services
qA75530
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