The minister responsible for drug purchasing agency Pharmac has doubled down on calls for more use of artificial intelligence, saying the technology could help people evaluate medicines more quickly and improve decision-making, with greater human control.
In a letter outlining his expectations for Pharmac over the coming year, Deputy Health Minister David Seymour directed Pharmac to continue investing in data and digital infrastructure, including considering the use of AI to support analysis, reporting and decision-making across core functions.
Mr Seymour told RNZ. checkpoint Pharmac is already off to a positive start by using AI for tasks such as meeting minutes, summarizing documents, and classifying medical devices.
“I think it’s a very good start,” he said. “We see them going further and using it to analyze the benefits of medicines and compare benefits.”
Seymour said AI should support staff, not replace them.
“I don’t see it as a human replacement. I see it as a multiplier on the staff time and talent that we have.”
Seymour said the expanded use of AI should follow government guidance requiring human oversight of AI-assisted decision-making.
Seymour stopped short of prescribing exactly how Pharmac should use the technology, but said he supports AI making initial recommendations for drug funding, provided appropriate safeguards are in place.
“If it’s not just a fad and they can pull it off, there’s a real benefit of being able to get more drugs to more patients faster, and I think that should be a positive,” he said.
Beyond AI, Seymour’s letter called on Pharmac to explore new ways to fund medicines that better take into account savings generated elsewhere in the health system and across government.
He cited medicines that reduce the need for expensive treatments or improve people’s ability to work as examples of where broader economic benefits justify increased investment in medicines.
“If we’re going to somehow come up with a lower pharmaceutical budget than comparable countries, I’d be interested to see how Pharmac makes the case to close the gap,” he said.
Mr Seymour suggested that Pharmac work with the government’s Social Investment Agency to better measure the long-term financial and social benefits of funding decisions.
He said some medicines can take years to produce measurable savings in diabetes, kidney disease and lower dialysis rates, but those benefits are often outside the scope of the government’s four-year budget cycle.
“The Social Investment Agency was set up specifically for the task of quantifying future benefits from current government spending that might not otherwise be taken into account,” Mr Seymour said.
The minister also acknowledged that while additional funding is still needed to clear Pharmac’s list of unfunded medicines, improved analysis and demonstrating broader economic benefits could strengthen future budget proposals.
Mr Seymour argued that although the government had increased funding to Pharmac during the current period, there was still scope for further investment if the agency could demonstrate savings across the wider public sector.
