The Government is following up on its election promise to conduct an independent review of Pharmac.

It will assess how the medical funding body performs against objectives, and whether they should be changed.

It will consider the timeliness of decision making, particularly for new medicines -- and the transparency and accessibility of decision-making processes.

Health Minister Andrew Little says an expert panel will be charged with working out what is and isn't working.

But the Prime Minister says it won't dig into 'commercial specifics' - to avoid compromising its bulk buying abilities.

Patient Voice Aotearoa's Malcolm Mulholland says it means the review won't go far enough.

"In fact, I've already had patients ring me up in tears, patients who are dying wanting for different cancer medications and those for rare diseases, saying 'what part of this do they not understand?'."

He says Pharmac decisions mean the difference between life and death.

"The thing that they don't understand, and neither do we for that matter, is why are these drugs funded in other countries right across the globe, but not in New Zealand?"

The review will also look at whether Māori and Pacific people have fair access to medicines.