About The New Zealand Formulary

The NZF is an independent resource providing healthcare professionals with clinically validated medicines information and guidance on best practice, enabling healthcare professionals to select safe and effective medicines for individual patients.

The NZF is a resource that is available free of charge for all healthcare professionals prescribing, dispensing and administering medicines across community and hospital care. The NZF addresses the need for general purpose, point-of-care information about the use of medicines in New Zealand. It aids decision making and contributes to best practice through standardised and evidence-based information about medicines. Over time the NZF will be fully integrated into the e-health environment, including prescribing and dispensing systems across primary and secondary care.

The NZF builds on the New Zealand Universal List of Medicines, and incorporates information from the British National Formulary (BNF). It is adapted for the New Zealand context and covers medicines used in New Zealand. Content and coverage will be continually updated.

Initially, the NZF will cover information such as:

  • Medicine indications, dosage, cautions, contra-indications, adverse effects, warnings, patient advice and cautionary and advisory labelling
  • The use of medicines in renal and hepatic impairment, pregnancy, lactation and sport
  • Subsidy information
  • Medicine interactions
  • Concise disease management advice
  • Adverse event reporting

Further enhancements are planned over time such as tools to allow integration of preferred medicines lists and local protocols in hospital care, and other extensions according to user feedback.

Full information about the NZF

The NZF Team

The NZF staff consists of a team of clinical pharmacists and technical staff.

NZF Governance

Director and Chair

Stuart McLauchlan

Directors

Andrea Naylor

Nic Potter

Stephen Higgs

Chief Executive Officer

Karl Andrews

Chief Clinical Advisor

Murray Tilyard

Chief Information Officer

Eric Robertson

Management

Kaye Baldwin Corporate Manager and Board Secretary

New Zealand Formulary Staff

NZ Formulary Manager

Sarah Kirk (BSc (Otago), BCom (Otago), PGDipDigHeal (Otago))

Clinical Lead Editor

Heather Evans (BPharm (Otago), NZRegPharm)

Senior Clinical Editors

Lucy Broughton (BPharm (Otago), PGDipClinPharm (Otago), NZRegPharm)

Kirsten Simonsen (BPharm (Otago), M(Clin)Pharm (Otago), NZRegPharm)

Clinical Editors

Alice Cuthbert (BPharm (Otago), NZRegPharm)

Arlene Jamieson (BPharm (Hons) (Otago), PGDipClinPharm (Belfast), NZRegPharm)

Rachel Leeder (BPharm (Otago), NZRegPharm)

Abbie Muir (BPharm (Otago), NZRegPharm)

Stacey Smith (BPharm (Otago), NZRegPharm)

IT Developers

Reuben Elder (BSc (Hon) (Otago))

Stephen Chalmers (BEd (Otago), DipGrad(Computer Science) (Otago))

Formulary Advisory Board

Shayne Hunter (chair) Ministry of Health

Chris James Medsafe Ministry of Health

Rommel Anthony Medsafe Ministry of Health

Matt Doogue Canterbury District Health Board

Sean Dougherty Pharmac

Sadhana Maraj National Health IT Board

Martin Wilson Royal College of General Practitioners

Editorial Advisory Board

David Reith (Chair) (MB BS(NSW) DCH (Lond) DipRACOG FRACP MMedSc (Pharm) PhD (Qld)) | Clinical Pharmacologist

Cass Byrnes (MBChB, GCCE, FRACP, MD) | Paediatrician

Chloe Campbell (BPharm (Hons) (Otago), MPS, NZRegPharm) | Medicines Information Pharmacist

Caroline De Luca (BPharm (Otago), PGDipClinPharm (Otago), NZRegPharm) | Paediatric Pharmacist

Sisira Jayathissa MBBS, MMedSc (Clin Epi), MD, FRCP (Lon, Edin) FRACP, FAFPHM, FNZCPHM, Dip Clin Epi, Dip OHP, Dip HSM, MBS | Consultant Physician and Geriatrician

Susan Kenyon (BPharm, PhD)

Kathy Maxwell (BPharm, PGDipClinPharm, MClinPharm, MPS, FNZCP, NZRegPharm) | Community Pharmacist

Howard Wilson (MB.BS (London), B.Sc. (London), Ph.D. (London), Dip.Obst. (Otago), FRNZCGP, FRACGP, FDRHM) | General Practitioner

Acknowledgements

The New Zealand Formulary team is grateful to individuals and organisations that have provided advice and information for the NZF.

Advisers for this release

D. Abernethy, T. Anderson, S. Barton, K. Ball, K. Bax, J. Carter, K. Clarke, B. Clayton-Smith, M. Crawford, R. Cutfield, M. Doogue, A. D'Souza, T. Duplessis, M. Eggleston, P. Ellis, C. Engelbrecht, A. Frew, E. Gane, P. Ganly, D. Gerrard, P. Glue, A. Harrison, D. Holland, R. Lukey, M. Lund, P. Manning, C. McAllum, S. McBride, M. McKellar, J. McMinn, G. McRae, A. Nolan, A. Oakley, P. Ockleford, N. Pollock, D. Purvis, G. Reynolds, C. Roke, A. Shirtcliffe, J. Skinner, N. Solomon, M. Stitely, M. Tatley, L. Te Karu, C. Thomson, C. Towns, N. Turner, R. Walker, C. Walters, R. Weinkove, D.Woods, R. Yap

Previous contributors

S. Allan, K. Batty, E. Begg, D. Bettany, P. Buffery, L. Bryant, G. Devlin, A. Egan, R. Gray, C. Greasley, J. Fink, J. Kennedy, I. Hosford, J. Livesey, R. Lukey, E. Maher, L. McDermott, J. McElroy, R. MacKenzie, D. Miller, H. Paterson, H. Pilmore, J. Reid, S. Ram, S. Roberts, S. Salman, M. Shaw, J. Tatler, W. Van Der Merwe, A. Van Der Linden, J. Visser, P.D. Wilson, D. Wiseman, J. Wyeth

Organisations that have contributed advice

Best Practice Advocacy Centre (BPAC)

eTG complete (Therapeutic Guidelines Ltd., Melbourne) for drugs in breastfeeding information

Family Planning New Zealand

Health Quality and Safety Commission (HQSC)

Immunisation Advisory Centre (IMAC)

Medicines Information Services in NZ secondary care

New Zealand Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Authority (Medsafe)

New Zealand National Poisons Centre (NPC)

New Zealand Guidelines Group

New Zealand Pharmacovigilance Centre

New Zealand Universal List of Medicines (NZULM)

Pharmacology Guidelines, Canterbury DHB

Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand (PSNZ)

SafeRx (Waitemata DHB)

New Zealand Hospital Pharmacists’ Association (NZHPA) Special Interest Groups

Therapeutic Goods Administration, Australia (TGA) for drugs in pregnancy categories

Other resources where links have been made from the NZF text

Updates to the online and pdf versions of the NZF are published on the 1st working day of each calendar month. It is vital to use the most recent release of the NZF for making clinical decisions.