{"id":649019,"date":"2026-11-02T19:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T19:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/649019\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T19:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T19:14:09","slug":"pharmacs-cardiovascular-team-recommends-funding-wegovy-for-some-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/649019\/","title":{"rendered":"Pharmac’s cardiovascular team recommends funding Wegovy for some people"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pharmac’s cardiovascular experts have recommended funding a weightloss drug for people with cardiovascular disease and a BMI of 27 or more<\/a> as a high priority.<\/p>\n

The drug is already in use in New Zealand, but unfunded, meaning patients must cover the cost.<\/p>\n

In May, Pharmac added the brand of semaglutide known as Wegovy to its list of medicines suitable for future funding, specifically for weight loss – but this, too, remained unfunded, leaving patients to cover the full cost.<\/p>\n

This most recent recommendation, which comes from the drug funding agency’s cardiovascular advisory committee, is a “high-level provisional outcome”, so it does not reveal the reasons behind the recommendation, or how many New Zealanders would qualify for treatment if the drug was funded for this purpose.<\/p>\n

Novo, the company behind Wegovy, said in a statement it welcomed the decision.<\/p>\n

“Cardiovascular disease remains a leading cause of death in New Zealand, highlighting the importance of improving access to evidence-based treatment options for people living with this condition,” it said.<\/p>\n

According to Health NZ, roughly a third of New Zealanders over 15 years of age were considered obese<\/a>, giving New Zealand one of the highest adult obesity rates in the OECD.<\/p>\n

Cardiovascular disease was responsible for almost one in three deaths in New Zealand, and maintaining a healthy weight could help manage cardiovascular risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pharmac’s cardiovascular experts have recommended funding a weightloss drug for people with cardiovascular disease and a BMI of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[134,524,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-649019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-health","tag-medication","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}