More New Zealanders will have access to medicines for blood cancers, bowel diseases, eczema and arthritis, following Pharmac’s decision to widen access to four medicines for six health conditions from 1 May 2025.
The medicines and health conditions are:
venetoclax (brand name Venclexta) in combination with azacitidine or cytarabine for a type of blood cancer called acute myeloid leukaemia
azacitidine (brand name Azacitidine Dr Reddy’s) for acute myeloid leukaemia
ibrutinib (brand name Imbruvica) for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia
upadacitinib (brand name Rinvoq) for atopic dermatitis (eczema), ulcerative colitis, Crohn disease, and rheumatoid arthritis.
Pharmac currently funds venetoclax for a different type of blood cancer called chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, and funds upadacitinib for some people with rheumatoid arthritis. Azacitidine is currently funded for other types of blood cancer.
“We’re making these treatments available for more people. We estimate that 1200 New Zealanders will benefit from widened access to these medicines in the first year of funding, with 5,070 people benefiting per year after five years” says Pharmac’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr David Hughes.
“Widening access to these medicines will have a huge impact on the people who need them, but will also have benefits for the wider health system,” Hughes says.
Widened access to upadacitinib will reduce the need for Health NZ infusion services, reducing infusion times by 4,000 hours in the first year of funding.
Hughes says Pharmac have widened access to these medicines through a bundle agreement with the supplier, AbbVie.
“Our team have negotiated a great deal with AbbVie. Alongside making venetoclax and upadacitinib available to more New Zealanders at a reduced net price, our teams have also negotiated price reductions for two already funded medicines – a medicine used to treat Hepatitis C, and a medicine to treat inflammatory conditions.
“These savings enable us to maximise the use of our medicines budget to fund more treatments for New Zealanders,” says Hughes.
Pharmac has made several changes in response to feedback received from clinicians, patient support and advocacy groups and patients, including changing the access criteria so that people privately funding these medicines can transition to publicly funded treatment, provided the same eligibility criteria were met prior to starting treatment.
“I want to thank everyone who took the time to provide us with feedback during our consultation. Your views are important to us and affect our decisions,” Hughes says.
Pharmac can consider widening access to these medicines following the Government’s $604 million medicine budget increase in June 2024.
Questions and answers
Venetoclax with azacitidine or cytarabine for eligible people with acute myeloid leukaemia
Venetoclax will be funded for people with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) who are unable to have intensive chemotherapy. People will take this tablet medicine in combination with one of two chemotherapy medicines, called azacitidine and cytarabine. Together these medicines prevent the cancer getting worse and spreading around the body.
We expect about 65 people to benefit in the first year of funding.
AML develops when bone marrow makes too many immature white blood cells. These cells take up space in the bone marrow and prevent it from making normal blood cells. People more likely to get anaemia, reoccurring infections, bruising and the immature blood cells can build up in organs like the spleen and liver, causing damage.
Venetoclax is a targeted cancer medicine that prevents the cancer from getting worse. We currently fund venetoclax for a different type of blood cancer called chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL).
People with AML will take venetoclax in combination with one of two chemotherapy medicines, called azacitidine and cytarabine. As part of this decision, we are also widening access to azacitidine for this group of people. Cytarabine is already funded for any health condition, where it is needed.
We have also removed the 36-month criterion from the CLL Special Authority criteria for venetoclax and ibrutinib in response to consultation feedback. This means people will be able to stop continuous therapy and not be disadvantaged from accessing subsequent treatments as a result. It is expected an additional 1-2 patients per year will benefit from this widening of access.
Upadacitinib for atopic dermatitis (eczema), two types of inflammatory bowel disease, and rheumatoid arthritis
Upadacitinib is an immunosuppressant medicine which means it reduces the activity of the immune system which causes many of the symptoms of inflammatory conditions.
Upadacitinib will be funded for the first time for people with moderate to severe atopic dermatitis (known as eczema). Most people can manage their eczema with treatments that are applied directly onto their skin, but some people need an immunosuppressant like upadacitinib to manage their condition.
Upadacitinib will also be funded for two types of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD): moderate to severe ulcerative colitis and Crohn disease. Ulcerative colitis affects the large intestine and Crohn disease can affect any part of the digestive system. It will be funded for people with these types of IBD when other medicines are not working for them.
Upadacitinib has been funded for some people with rheumatoid arthritis since 2021. We are widening access to upadacitinib for people with rheumatoid arthritis who have tried other treatments and are unable to take another medicine called rituximab.
We expect about 1,150 people with these health conditions to benefit in the first year of funding.
