News

Pharmac is seeking feedback on a proposal to fund letermovir, a medicine that helps prevent serious viral infection in people with very weak immune systems. Under this proposal, letermovir would be funded from 1 May 2026 for people who have had a stem cell transplant, as well as a small number of other people with severe immunosuppression who cannot use other funded antiviral medicines. We have heard from clinicians involved in stem cell transplant care and from Pharmac’s clinical advisors...

Kia ora   The March 2026 edition of Prescriber Update  is now available on the Medsafe website. Please can you share it with your networks.   Kind regards   Medsafe Pharmacovigilance Team

Issue 337 - 5 March 2026 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 aren't open access,...

A randomized trial compared oral ivermectin with 5% permethrin for treating scabies in index cases and household clusters of up to eight people 1 . Ivermectin 200 µg/kg was taken with food on days 0 and 10, while permethrin was applied head-to-toe, including hair, genitalia, and children’s faces, left on overnight, and washed off after at least eight hours. Emollients and textile decontamination were advised. Children under 15 kg received permethrin only.  Cluster-level cure rates were...

Kia ora koutou,   This is a quick reminder that our initial consultation questionnaire regarding the review of Ngā paerewa Health and disability services standard 2021  (Ngā Paerewa) will close in two weeks on 16 March 2026 .   If you have already submitted your feedback, thank you for your time and please disregard this email.   We acknowledge that this is a relatively short consultation window. We want to reassure you that this is an initial questionnaire only. Its purpose is to help the...

Below is the latest information on Pharmac consultations, notifications, and supply issues for Primary Care Prescribers for week 27 February 2026. It includes information on:  New updates Resolved Supply Issues Changes to Antiretroviral Dispensing – Effective 1 March 2026 From 1 March 2026, all listed antiretroviral  (community schedule)  treatments will default to 90‑day dispensing and may be prescribed and dispensed accordingly where appropriate.  Improving access to treatments in the...