Patient Voice Aotearoa and Medicines New Zealand have today released the Valuing Life – Medicines Access Summit 2025 Report, calling for decisive political leadership and long-term reform to ensure New Zealanders can access modern medicines in a timely and equitable way.

The report captures insights from the second Valuing Life – Medicines Access Summit, held at Parliament in October 2025 and hosted by Deputy Prime Minister and Associate Minister of Health (Pharmac), Hon David Seymour. The event brought together 180 attendees, including patient groups, clinicians, government officials, academics, and pharmaceutical industry representatives for two days of keynote panels and workshops.

The report highlights both progress and persistent gaps in New Zealand’s medicines system. As the whitepaper notes, “while some progress has been made, delivery remains uneven” and several foundational reforms “have not been started or addressed fully.” These need to be politically driven and include a national medicines strategy, reform of Pharmac’s statutory objective, and the development of an integrated clinical trials ecosystem.

Key findings from the report include:

• Progress is fragile without political leadership and accountability.
• New Zealand continues to lag behind OECD peers.
• Pharmac continues to be greatly underfunded.
• Patients’ groups and clinicians are calling for a system that values timeliness, transparency, and lived experience.
• Global pressures are reshaping medicines access.
• A call for partnership and long-term reform

The report outlines a series of recommendations and actions across three core themes: partnership and collaboration; equity and access; and transparency, funding, and efficiency. Many of these recommendations build on actions identified at the inaugural 2024 summit, reflecting ongoing concern about the pace of progress.

Summit co-chairs Dr Malcolm Mulholland (Patient Voice Aotearoa) and Todd Krieble (Medicines New Zealand) say the report is both a roadmap and a call to action.

“This report highlights both progress and the challenges that remain. It calls for authentic, multi-stakeholder collaboration to ensure that medicines access is not only improved but sustained.”

Dr Mulholland said “Patients are waiting years for medicines that are standard of care overseas. We need a long-term, bipartisan medicines strategy that is matched with an appropriate budget to ensure New Zealanders can access modern therapies when they need them, not years later.”

Mr Krieble said the summit demonstrated what is possible when stakeholders work together. “The energy and commitment at the summit show that progress is achievable. But without clear political leadership, resourcing, and accountability, that progress will remain fragile.”

The report urges government agencies, political leaders, and sector partners to use the balanced scorecard included in the report as a tool for accountability and action. It also calls for immediate progress on stalled reforms, including Pharmac’s statutory objective and the national medicines strategy.

The organisations behind the summit say they remain committed to working alongside government and sector partners to ensure that access to modern medicines becomes a reality for all New Zealanders.

A copy of the full report can be found at valuinglife.nz/report25

ENDS

For further comment please contact:

Dr Malcolm Mulholland 
Patient Voice Aotearoa 
022 097 5899 
[email protected] 

Grace Abbott
Medicines New Zealand
027 534 6461
[email protected]