PHARMAC funding for Roche and Pfizer drugs

5 December 2016

New Zealand’s Pharmaceutical Management Agency PHARMAC has announce a major funding package following an agreement with the local subsidiary of Swiss pharma giant Roche (ROG: SIX) for funding nine medicines covering 10 different medical conditions with changes implemented from January 1, 2017.

This was the subject of consultation in October 2016. This decision will see nearly 2,000 people over five years getting access to medicines they need to treat cancer, respiratory, rheumatology and other diseases. In summary, this decision will result in the following changes from 1 January 2017:

three new treatments will be funded:

obinutuzumab (Gazyva) for chronic lymphocytic leukemia;
pertuzumab (Perjeta) for metastatic breast cancer;
pirfenidone (Esbriet) for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

access to three currently funded treatments will be widened to include seven new therapeutic indications:

dornase alfa (Pulmozyme) for children with cystic fibrosis under the age of 5 years;
rituximab (MabThera) for hairy cell leukaemia; re-treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia; and MPO-ANCA positive vasculitis;
tocilizumab (Actemra) for polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis; rheumatoid arthritis; and idiopathic multicentric Castleman’s disease.

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