Kia ora,

I’m making this Official Information Act request as part of ADHDInquiryNZ, a grassroots, unfunded, and non-partisan volunteer initiative supporting a public petition calling for a Parliamentary inquiry into systemic harm to people with ADHD in Aotearoa. This request focuses on information held by your agency to help identify how ADHD is currently recognised within existing systems. The information gathered from this and related requests will help identify patterns across agencies and contribute to evidence provided to the Petitions Committee when the petition period closes. I appreciate the time involved in OIA responses.

Please treat this as a request for official information under the OIA. I am requesting the specific information listed below. I understand Pharmac’s obligation to assist under s 13 and that a decision should be made within 20 working days of receipt (or transfer within 10 working days). If any part of this request requires clarification, please let me know no later than 5 working days from receipt. If an extension under s 15A is needed, please state the reason and duration. This request is confined to information held by Pharmac; please do not transfer for commentary.

Time period: This request covers the period 1 January 2015 to the date this request is received.

Format: Where datasets, tables, or modelling outputs are provided, I request they be supplied in machine-readable format (CSV or original spreadsheet file), along with any data dictionaries or field definitions.

Scope clarification to reduce unnecessary work
To streamline this request, I am not seeking internal email chains or drafts unless they are the only record of the substantive information described.
To avoid any uncertainty, I confirm I am seeking information already held by Pharmac and am not asking for new modelling or analysis to be created.
If any part of this request is likely to be refused under s 18(f) due to substantial collation, please identify that specific part early so I can refine it.

Please provide:
1. Policies, Funding Criteria, and Decisions
Any policies, clinical criteria, funding criteria, PTAC/PTAC Subcommittee advice, Schedule decisions, or internal decision documents since 2015 that relate to ADHD medicines, including both stimulant and non-stimulant classes.

2. Funded Prescription Data
Annual counts of funded prescriptions for ADHD relevant medicines (e.g., methylphenidate formulations, dexamfetamine, lisdexamfetamine, atomoxetine, guanfacine), broken down by:
-medicine type
-age
-sex (as recorded in NHI/dispensing datasets)
-region
-ethnicity
for each of the past ten financial years, or for as many years as data are held in this form.

3. Equity, Access, and Barriers
Any advice, analysis, reports, or correspondence discussing:
-barriers to equitable access
-cultural-safety considerations
-regional variability
-prescribing constraints
-unmet need
-delays in access or inequities relating to ADHD medicines

4. Data Gaps and System Limitations
Any internal documents, memos, or correspondence noting:
-gaps in ADHD-related medicine data
-limitations in monitoring or reporting
-issues with categorisation or coding of ADHD medicines
-constraints preventing Pharmac from analysing ADHD-related access or outcomes

If none exist, please confirm this.

5. Equity or Effectiveness Monitoring
Any evaluation, monitoring, or review reports produced or held by Pharmac that assess:
-equity of access to ADHD medicines
-effectiveness or appropriateness of funded ADHD medicines
-distributional impacts (e.g., Māori, Pacific, or high needs communities)

If no ADHD-specific monitoring exists, please confirm this.

6. Supply Disruptions
Any supply disruption notices, risk registers, internal discussion, or correspondence with manufacturers or distributors regarding ADHD medicines since 2015.

7. Categorisation if Not ADHD Specific
If Pharmac does not hold ADHD-specific material for any of the items above, please confirm this and indicate how such medicines or data are categorised in Pharmac systems (e.g., under mental health, paediatrics, neurodevelopmental conditions, or pharmaceutical groupings).

8. Co-prescribing or Sequential Prescribing (Dispensing Data Only)
Please provide any existing dispensing datasets, summaries, or internal information held by Pharmac showing co-prescribing or sequential prescribing patterns involving ADHD medicines (e.g., dispensing alongside or following antidepressants or anxiolytics).

I am not requesting any new analysis or evaluation, only information already held.
If Pharmac holds only raw dispensing combinations (and no analysis), please confirm this.
If Pharmac does not hold such information, please confirm this and note whether data structures would allow such analysis if commissioned.

9. Gaps / Non-collection
If Pharmac does not hold some or all of the information requested, this absence also helps clarify how ADHD medicines are tracked and managed across the system.

Please confirm if the information is not held, and include any documents recording:
-decisions not to collect ADHD-related information
-decisions to aggregate ADHD medicines under other categories
-known limitations in data, reporting, or tracking

Ngā mihi,
Elspeth Baker-Vevers