Pharmac—Te Pātaka Whaioranga is seeking commercial
bids from suppliers for the supply of bevacizumab for a
range of cancers.
“Today, we have issued a
Future Procurement Opportunity (FPO) for the cancer
treatment bevacizumab,” says Pharmac’s Chief Medical
Officer, Dr David Hughes.
“This is a preliminary
stage in government procurement that signals to the supplier
market and New Zealanders that we are interested in
considering funding bevacizumab for a range of
indications.
“The reason we are following this
competitive procurement process is because there are
multiple potential suppliers of bevacizumab in New
Zealand.”
Dr Hughes says Pharmac received clinical
advice that access to bevacizumab would benefit people with
a number of cancers, including liver, bowel, brain, ovarian,
and cervical cancers.
“We know people want us to
fund it, so it’s great that we’re now in a position to
start our competitive procurement process, which will help
us consider if we are able to fund it and for which
indications.”
“There’s a lot of work to be done
between an FPO going out and the development of a funding
proposal later, but it’s important to give suppliers an
early heads-up so that they’re well
prepared.
We cannot be certain that bevacizumab
will be funded for all the cancer types we’ve considered
through this procurement process, as that will depend on the
bids received and the amount of available funding.
As
our procurement activity progresses, we will share more
information with the community and the wider
public.
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