had added Semaglutide – brand name Wegovy – to its list<\/a> of ‘Options For Investment’, which includes all the medications that Pharmac would fund, if the budget allowed.<\/p>\nCurrently unfunded, Wegovy would cost someone about $400 a month.<\/p>\n
The order of Pharmac’s list is not made public for commercial reasons, but if chosen, the drug would be available to people with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of more than 50 and also to those with a BMI of more than 35 with at least two co-morbidities.<\/p>\n
Auckland University paediatric endocrinology professor Wayne Cutfield said questions remained over final eligibility criteria, whether the drug would be fully funded or subsidised, and – crucially – when, but he did not expect to wait long.<\/p>\n
![\"No](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4MFO2P2_copyright_image_254681.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nAuckland University paediatric endocrinology professor Wayne Cutfield.
\nPhoto: Liggins Institute\n<\/p>\n
“This isn’t the only drug in their cross-hairs that they [Pharmac] are considering,” he said. “Yes, it’s big and, yes, it’s important, but I don’t know if it will be weeks or months.<\/p>\n
“I have no idea, but it’s not going to be years.”<\/p>\n
Cutfield said the cost of the drug was prohibitive for many and, if approved as recommended, a huge number of New Zealanders – including teens – would benefit.<\/p>\n
“They use the term ‘people’, which doesn’t exclude teenagers, because Wegovy in New Zealand [is] licensed for those over the age of 12. In Australia, it is a far more exclusive recommendation that has been imposed.”<\/p>\n
Weight loss specialist Gerard McQuinlan said the addition of Wegovy to Pharmac’s list was significant and the recommended eligibility criteria made sense.<\/p>\n
He said comorbidities, such as high blood pressure, obstructive sleep apnea and diabetes, were all improved by weight loss and funded Wegovy could potentially deliver savings to the healthcare system.<\/p>\n
McQuinlan hoped approval would come before 2030 and expected Wegovy to be fully funded, with people paying no more than the standard $5 prescription fee.<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pharmac has added Wegovy to its list of medicines suitable for future funding. Photo: Jens Kalaene \/ AFP…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[64,1590,63,1589,137,490,44,1591,1588,1586,1587],"class_list":["post-671070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-au","tag-audio","tag-australia","tag-current-affairs","tag-health","tag-medication","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}