PHARMAC: Access Criteria For New COVID-19 Treatment Announced

Pharmac has today confirmed the access criteria for the
first preventative medicine for COVID-19, tixagevimab and
cilgavimab (branded as Evusheld), for severely
immunocompromised New Zealanders.

Read
the access criteria

“Being vaccinated and
boosted is the best defence against COVID-19, but we’re
pleased to have treatments to prevent more people from
becoming very unwell,” says Chief Medical Officer, Dr
David Hughes. “The preventative medicine, Evusheld
provides an additional layer of protection to those in our
communities who need it most and will support the aim of
preventing severe illness and hospitalisations as a result
of COVID-19.”

“We have developed access criteria to
ensure that the treatment is given to those with the highest
health need and those most likely to benefit from the
treatment.”

“Following advice from the clinical
experts in our COVID-19 Treatments Advisory Group we have
prioritised the supply of Evusheld for people who are
immunocompromised and most at risk of an inadequate immune
response to vaccination or COVID-19 infection,” says Dr
Hughes.

Evusheld is available now in hospitals and
will be available in the community from mid-September. “We
are taking a phased approach to allow additional time for
community implementation to be developed with the
sector.”

“We encourage whānau to have
conversations with loved ones about the treatment options
and ask practitioners to urge their communities to take the
precautions that are available to them to stay safe and
well.”

Further detail on New Zealand’s COVID-19
Treatments Portfolio is available on our
website.

Learn more

Evusheld is a
combination of 2 monoclonal antibodies targeting different
aspects of spike protein on the virus. It is a preventative
treatment, given as two separate and sequential
injections.

In June 2022 Pharmac secured supply of 216
courses (300 mg) of short dated unapproved tixagevimab with
cilgavimab for immediate use by Te Whatu Ora – Health New
Zealand hospitals for use in people at very-high risk of
severe outcomes from COVID-19 infection, prior to Access
Criteria being finalised. Following the exhaustion of these
216 courses Pharmac made the decision to release 500 courses
of the first delivery of tixagevimab with cilgavimab, to
ensure that people at very-high risk of severe outcomes from
COVID-19 infection are able to receive treatment prior to
Pharmac’s access criteria being
finalised.

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