GRC Partners supported a global pharmaceutical company to work constructively within a complex stakeholder environment in New Zealand to realise patient access to their pipeline of therapies.
The challenge was to navigate multiple layers of the New Zealand’s bureaucracy with a strong focus on Pharmac, the independent drug-buying agency. Pharmac had undergone several reviews over successive Governments due to intense and ongoing public pressure regarding its culture and treatment of patient advocacy groups, alongside their assessment processes, decision-making and lack of transparency or accountability.
We developed and implemented a strategic government relations engagement strategy for our client – who had been at the sharp end of poor processes, lack of accountability and transparency at the drug-buying agency for years. Our work was further complicated by New Zealand’s three-party centre-right coalition Government. We worked alongside our client to carefully execute managed engagement activity, avoiding missteps and building greater awareness of the access gap in New Zealand to modern blood cancer treatment.
The plan focused on outlining the interconnected stakeholder environment and providing context to how and why stakeholders either worked with or against one another. This mapping exercise informed the local market access team and wider global senior executives and helped them to better understand the complexities of the New Zealand reimbursement environment. The plan provided a policy map of relevant health policies of the various coalition partners in the immediate aftermath of the 2023 general election, how those translated into Government policy in a coalition environment and status updates along the way. We also provided a map of high-value stakeholders and a set of compelling key messages.
We supported a range of engagement activities including prioritisation meetings with Pharmac, meetings with responsible Ministers and opposition Members of Parliament – each point providing an opportunity to escalate the issue and advocate for better access to modern medicines for blood cancer patients in New Zealand. We also provided wider counsel and advice on the key industry associations with a focus on leverage opportunities.
The whole approach to how the client was perceived in market changed – from adversarial to constructive and respectful. The fundamental shift continues today. The role of the blood cancer patient advocacy group was entirely reshaped and on 9 April 2026 the associate minister for Health responsible for Pharmac announced Pharmac’s decision to fund two new combination therapies for people with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), a type of blood cancer. This successful reimbursement was the first in market in nearly four years.
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