Pharmac Funds More Medicines For New Zealanders

08 December 

Te Pātaka Whaioranga – Pharmac
has today announced decisions to fund two new medicines and
widen access to one other. These medicines provide a wide
range of benefits that will support New Zealanders in living
longer, healthier lives.

The medicines announced for
funding today include:

• Nusinersen (Spinraza) for
  the rare disorder, spinal muscular
  atrophy
• Meningococcal B vaccine (Bexsero) widened
  access for tamariki and for rangatahi living in specified
  close living situations
• Oral vinorelbine
  (Vinorelbine Te Arai), an oral form of an anti-cancer
  medicine to improve access equity.

First
medicine funded for the rare disorder, spinal muscular
atrophy

Pharmac has approved funding of nusinersen
(Spinraza) for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) a rare genetic
disorder. Nusinersen is the first medicine for SMA funded in
New Zealand. People aged 18 years and under who have
pre-symptomatic, or symptomatic type I, II or IIIa spinal
muscular atrophy, and meet certain criteria will be eligible
for the treatment.

“We are really pleased to
announce that this medicine will be funded for New
Zealanders – it will make a substantial difference to
peoples’ lives,” says Pharmac’s Director of Operations
Lisa Williams. “We estimate that in the first year 30 to
50 young people will be eligible for funded treatment, and
we expect the number of people receiving treatment to
increase over time.

“We want to thank everyone who
gave us feedback on our proposal to fund nusinersen. We have
carefully considered all the elements that people commented
on, including eligibility, definitions and access. We’ve
made some changes to criteria as a result, and we plan to
seek more clinical advice in early 2023 on the requests we
received for expanded access.

“We continue to work
with Rare Disorders NZ, our Rare Disorders Advisory
Committee, and the wider health sector on how we continue to
support the rare disorders community to access the medicines
they need.”

Funding
of nusinersen will begin from 1 January
2023.

Meningococcal B vaccine funded for tamariki
and rangatahi

Pharmac will fund the meningococcal B
vaccine (Bexsero) to protect more young people against
meningococcal disease. Access to the vaccine will be widened
to children up to 12 months and for people aged 13 to 25
years who are entering into or in their first year of
specified close-living situations. Catch-up programmes for
children under five years and rangatahi already living in
close-living situations will also be
funded.

“We’re grateful for all of the feedback we
received, and we and our sector partners will use this
information to support an effective rollout of the
meningococcal B vaccine in early 2023,” says Ms Williams.
“Meningococcal disease has an inequitable impact on Māori
and Pacific children, so we will work with Te Whatu Ora to
support their implementation of the programmes to benefit
Māori and Pacific people.

“We appreciate that there
are other groups who could benefit from this vaccine,
including people in other types of close living situations.
We will be seeking advice from our clinical experts about
other widened access options for people in close living
situations.”

Funding
for the two proposals announced today will come into effect
from 1 March 2023.

Access equity benefits from
oral medicine for cancer treatment

Pharmac has
announced the funding of an oral version of vinorelbine, a
chemotherapy medicine used to slow or stop the growth of
cancer cells.

“We heard from the consultation
feedback that this is a more convenient treatment option and
will have a positive impact for people and their whānau,
particularly those who live further away from hospital. This
decision will allow these people to spend less time in
hospital and spend more time with their whānau, doing
activities they love,” says Ms Williams. “This decision
supports medicine access equity, which is an important goal
for us and Aotearoa New Zealand.”

Oral
vinorelbine will be funded and available from 1 May
2023.

Investing in health

“Pharmac is
committed to using our budget increase announced in May 2022
to fund as many treatments on our options for investment
list as possible,” says Ms Williams. “By notifying the
public about these decisions today we are confirming that we
have come to an agreement with the supplier and will be
fully funding these medicines for New
Zealanders.”

“The treatments announced today bring
us to a total of 32 funding decisions since 1 July 2022
benefiting thousands of New Zealanders who use the medicines
and medical devices we fund. All of our team are motivated
to progress as many products as we can. We continue to work
to achieve the best health outcomes for the communities of
Aotearoa and are pleased to say there are more announcements
coming.”

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