Source: PHARMAC
Pharmac will widen access to rosuvastatin, a medicine used to treat high cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke, following its 2025/26 Annual Tender process.
Rosuvastatin tablets will be available without restrictions from 1 October 2026. This means people will no longer need to meet specific eligibility criteria to access the medicine.
Pharmac’s Director Pharmaceuticals, Geraldine MacGibbon, says the change reflects updated pricing arrangements secured through the Annual Tender process.
“As part of the Annual Tender, we were able to achieve a lower price for rosuvastatin. This has allowed us to remove eligibility criteria so that anyone who needs the medicine can access it.”
Pharmac’s annual tender is a key mechanism for managing increasing demand for funded medicines and enabling access to new and innovative treatments. The process typically generates savings of $30-50 million each year, which are reinvested to fund new medicines or make existing medicines available to more people.
Around 76,000 people in New Zealand currently use rosuvastatin each year. Pharmac estimates that a further 81,000 people could access the medicine in the first year following this change, increasing to around 108,000 people over five years.
Removing eligibility criteria also means clinicians will no longer need to apply for approval before prescribing rosuvastatin, reducing administrative requirements and supporting more consistent access to treatment.
Rosuvastatin is a higher-potency statin, which means it can lower cholesterol effectively at lower doses than some other options.
Pharmac has received previous feedback from its clinical advisors, clinicians, and members of the public, who supported removing eligibility criteria from rosuvastatin to improve access to treatment.
Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/06/30/more-people-to-access-cholesterol-lowering-medicine/