Evusheld Primary Care Funding Update - 30 September 2022

Tēnā koutou katoa, 

The COVID-19 Care in the Community team would like to invite the primary care sector to join the rollout of the COVID-19 Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) medicine Evusheld (tixagevimab and cilgavimab) from 3 October 2022.

This initiative is part of a suite of COVID-19 treatments, with Evusheld being the first funded Pre-exposure Prophylaxis treatment for at-risk people in our community.

A month ago, we sent out guidance to the health sector about the rollout of Evusheld, noting that eligible patients, approximately 10,000 (across the motu) or 2 per 1,000 in the population, are being identified and initially offered this treatment by hospital-based specialists.

We also noted our plan to extend this to include primary care in due course as a way of increasing accessibility for all those who meet Pharmac’s Evusheld access criteria.

Please see attached the EVUSHELD - CLAIMING GUIDE FOR PRIMARY CARE and a flow chart that gives an overview of activities associated with Evusheld administration, for circulation to your networks as appropriate. We acknowledge it may take some time for primary health organisations and district portfolio managers to make the arrangements needed to implement this new initiative and ask providers to defer invoicing until these arrangements are in place. We are grateful for your support with this initiative and for your ongoing mahi in the COVID-19 response.

Also, there is a range of information published on the Manatū Hauora – Ministry of Health website about Evusheld on its COVID-19 advice for all health professionals page in the Therapeutics for COVID-19 section, including the Guidance for COVID-19 Therapeutic - Evusheld (tixagevimab and cilgavimab), along with the Therapeutics Technical Advisory Group’s advice on use of Evusheld plus some frequently asked questions.

Community pharmacists will be able to order stock of Evusheld from Health Care Logistics from 3 October 2022. Stock should only be ordered upon receipt of a prescription.

Evusheld is:

• For severely immunocompromised people who don’t have COVID-19, but have certain medical conditions which put them at risk of an inadequate immune response to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination or infection OR
• For people who are unable to be vaccinated against COVID-19 due to medical contraindication (for example, a history of severe adverse reaction to a COVID-19 vaccine or its components) AND are considered at high risk of severe illness from COVID-19 infection.

Eligibility includes some transplant recipients, some people having treatment for cancer, and some people with HIV. Please refer to Pharmac’s Evusheld access criteria for the full eligibility criteria.

Please contact COVID19CareintheCommunity@health.govt.nz if you have any questions.

Ngā mihi nui,

Dan Hirst

Group Manager

COVID-19 Care in the Community

email | īmēra: COVIDcareinthecommunity@health.govt.nz

133 Molesworth Street, Thorndon, Wellington 6011