Pharmaceutical data web tool
This tool displays summary data on pharmaceuticals that were dispensed in community pharmacies and funded by the Government.
About the web tool
Data can be searched and filtered by:
- year of dispensing
- medicine — at chemical formulation, chemical, therapeutic group level 2 and therapeutic group level 3
- district where the individual lived at the time of dispensing or the district that funds the pharmacy.
The data can be downloaded in .csv format.
Impacts of COVID-19 on pharmaceutical dispensings
There were unusual pharmaceutical dispensing patterns in 2020, with a significant increase in the total number of dispensings.
These changes should be considered within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pharmac introduced a change in March 2020 that required pharmacies to move to monthly dispensing, rather than all-at-once dispensing. This was to mitigate the effects of global supply issues that were affecting New Zealand's stock of some medicines.
This change meant that a patient would have to go into a pharmacy 3 times for a normal 90-day prescription, rather than once. New Zealand returned to normal dispensing for most medicines on 1 August 2020.
Due to the unusual dispensing patterns in 2020, the web tool now includes a quantity variable (Qty).
Quantity data provides information about the number of 'units' of a drug given, rather than how many times it was dispensed.
We recommend the quantity variable be used with the dispensing numbers to get a clearer picture of long-term trends in dispensing patterns.
For more information, refer to either the:
- help section on Qty on the web tool’s home page
- technical document that can be downloaded from the web tool’s data page.