Hon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Health): Pharmac has been an ongoing success story for New Zealand, with millions of New Zealanders benefiting from its ability to negotiate access to pharmaceuticals. It's the only agency in the world that both decides what medicines to fund and manages a fixed budget for those medicines. In the 27 years since Pharmac was established, there have been various reviews of aspects of its operations, but none of those reviews have focused directly on the agency's performance or its role as part of the wider health and disability system. The budget of Pharmac does not lend itself to a technical review. Budgets are finite by nature and are decisions for the Government of the day. They are based on a range of factors, including trade-offs across the whole of the health system and across the whole of Government. 