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Pharmac is seeking feedback on a proposal to fund another brand of methylphenidate - Rubifen LA - to help ease ongoing supply issues and provide more treatment options for people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). If approved, this brand would be funded from 1 July 2026.   Proposal to fund a new brand of methylphenidate We welcome your feedback. Consultation is open until 5 pm, Thursday 4 December 2025. Please send your feedback to consult@pharmac.govt.nz  

A 2025 BMJ review found that a range of exercises were helpful for knee osteoarthritis 1 . The findings demonstrated that exercise was effective at improving pain, function, gait performance, and quality of life in individuals with knee osteoarthritis. There is a lack of studies comparing different types of exercise. None of the exercise interventions resulted in more adverse safety events than the control group, suggesting that exercise therapy is a safe treatment approach.

Kia ora,Pharmac is seeking feedback on a proposal to fund another brand of methylphenidate - Rubifen LA - to help ease ongoing supply issues and provide more treatment options for people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). If approved, this brand would be funded from 1 July 2026.   Proposal to fund a new brand of methylphenidate We welcome your feedback. Consultation is open until 5 pm, Thursday 4 December 2025. Please send your feedback to consult@pharmac.g

Kia ora   We are writing to inform you of a brand change.   Key Dates: Fulvestrant EVER Pharma brand of fulvestrant inj 50 mg per ml, 5 ml prefilled syringe will be listed (funded) on the Pharmaceutical Schedule from 1 December 2025. Fulvestrant EVER Pharma will be awarded Principal Supply Status (the main funded brand) from 1 May 2026 to 30 June 2028. The current brand Faslodex will be delisted (no longer funded) 1 May 2026.   Key Messages: Fulvestrant EVER Pharma is current

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In this issue New medicine supply notices Paxlovid pharmacy-initiated supply Updated medicine supply notices Tender brand change for cefalexin Resolved issues Recent decisions or open consultations Monthly updates New medicine supply notices Fulvestrant: Your brand is changing  The funded brand of fulvestrant is changing from Faslodex to Fulvestrant EVER Pharma. Fulvestrant EVER Pharma will be listed from 1 December 2025. Faslodex will be delisted 1 May 2026. A patient flier

Kia ora,   This is a reminder following on from our notification in June regarding the change in funded brands of oestradiol patches.   From 1 December 2025, the funded brands of oestradiol patches will be Estradiol TDP Mylan and Estradot. Everyone who uses funded oestradiol patches will need to use either of these brands.   Pharmac has secured as much Estradot as the supplier can provide. However, there may be times when there is not enough Estradot for everyone who needs i

Below is the latest information on Pharmac consultations, notifications, and supply issues for Primary Care Prescribers for week 07 November 2025. It includes information on:  New updates Resolved Supply Issues Supply issue: codeine phosphate tab all strengths Noumed, the supplier of codeine phosphate tablets, has advised that the 30 mg presentation is currently out of stock. Limited stock remains of the 15 mg and 60 mg presentations. New stock will be available in the week c

Pharmac has confirmed it will fund silver diamine fluoride for people accessing dental services through public hospitals, and the ‘Health New Zealand Community Oral Health Service’ for children and some adolescents. This decision follows recent consultation and is expected to benefit children, elderly patients, and those who may find some traditional dental procedures challenging. Silver diamine fluoride is a topical dental treatment, combining ionic silver and fluoride. It

Kia ora   Brand Change: We are writing to inform you of the brand change for docusate sodium 50 mg with sennosides 8 mg tablet.   Key Messages: Solax a new brand of docusate sodium 50 mg with sennosides 8 mg, will be listed from 1 December 2025. The Laxsol brand will be delisted 1 May 2026. Please support your patients with this change. Although we do not anticipate problems, we are aware that the Laxsol brand has been available in NZ for many years. The Solax tablets and Lax

Coming up in CPD:  Goodfellow Symposium 2026 21/22 March 2026: Practical, evidence-based clinical skills you can use next week:  Check it out here .  Asthma update: latest treatments and practical tips WEBINAR 18 November: Angela Moran reviews the NZ Asthma guidelines and discusses the types of asthma and which treatments may be appropriate for these, including biologic therapies.    Register here   Updates in gout and weight management WEBINAR 25 November: Join Lisa Stamp, R

Issue 333 - 13 November 2025 Welcome to the fortnightly Health Improvement and Innovation Digest. The Digest has links to key evidence of interest, with access to new content arranged by topic. You can forward this newsletter to others who may be interested in receiving it. They can register and subscribe here . You can also access other recent issues of the digest here. If you have any queries, please email us at  library@health.govt.nz . Article Access For articles that are

Pharmac Decision: Silver diamine fluoride to be funded from 1 December Pharmac has confirmed it will fund silver diamine fluoride for people accessing dental services through public hospitals, and the ‘Health New Zealand Community Oral Health Service’ for children and some adolescents. This decision follows recent consultation and is expected to benefit children, elderly patients, and those who may find some traditional dental procedures challenging. Silver diamine fluoride

Kia ora,Pharmac is funding five medicines through a multiproduct agreement with Roche. These medicines will provide new or improved treatment options for people with multiple sclerosis, eye conditions, breast cancer and lung cancer.The medicines we are funding are: Ocrelizumab (Ocrevus SC): a new injection option for multiple sclerosis Pertuzumab with trastuzumab (Phesgo): a new combined injection for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer Faricimab (Vabysmo): for diabetic ma

Kia ora, Pharmac has amended the 2025/26 Invitation to Tender with the following updates: Added:  cetirizine hydrochloride oral liq 1 mg per ml Amended:   midazolam inj 2.5 mg per ml, buccal syringe → midazolam inj 2.5 mg, buccal syringe midazolam inj 5 mg per ml, buccal syringe → midazolam inj 5 mg, buccal syringe midazolam inj 7.5 mg per ml, buccal syringe → midazolam inj 7.5 mg, buccal syringe midazolam inj 10 mg per ml, buccal syringe → midazolam inj 10 mg, buccal syr

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We are writing to inform you of a supply issue with   all strengths of codeine phosphate tablets (15mg, 30mg, 60mg)   Key messages:   Noumed, the supplier of Codeine Phosphate tablets, has advised that the 30 mg presentation is currently out of stock. Limited stock remains of the 15 mg and 60 mg presentations. New stock will be available in the week commencing 17 November.   Noumed has stock of 15 mg tablets and 60 mg tablets currently in NZ that needs to be re-labelled to ex

Sleep is something we are frequently asked about in primary care. One interesting study 1 , albeit dated, used a cohort of patients with self-reported sleep problems. Participants consumed two medium-sized kiwifruit one hour before bedtime for four weeks and tracked activity using actigraphy and sleep diaries. There was an association with improvements in sleep quality, sleep onset latency, total sleep time, and sleep efficiency. The proposed mechanism includes the presence

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