Dear Pharmaceutical Management Agency,

Remdesivir costs around $4400 to treat one person.

Can you please forward all information on Pharmac's decision to fund Remdesivir for the treatment of Covid 19?

Gilead’s remdesivir — or Veklury, as it’s marketed in the US — raked in around $2.8 billion last year as the only FDA-approved antiviral to treat Covid-19. But new data from a European study suggest the drug, which has been given to about half of hospitalized Covid patients in the country, has no actual benefit.
https://endpts.com/european-study-finds-...

On 16 September 2021 Pharmac announced it had secured more supply of the drug:
https://pharmac.govt.nz/news-and-resourc...

A number of studies have found no benefit:

"No clinical benefit was observed from the use of remdesivir in patients who were admitted to hospital for COVID-19, were symptomatic for more than 7 days, and required oxygen support."
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanin...(21)00485-0/fulltext

"‘Authors' conclusions: remdesivir probably has little or no effect on all‐cause mortality at up to 28 days in hospitalised adults with SARS‐CoV‐2 infection. We are uncertain about the effects of remdesivir on clinical improvement and worsening. There were insufficient data available to examine the effect of Remdesivir on mortality across subgroups defined by respiratory support at baseline.’ "
https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi...

See also -
https://www.managedhealthcareexecutive.c...
https://www.healio.com/news/infectious-d...
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lance...(20)31022-9/fulltext
https://www.ft.com/content/1625275b-9981...

Yours faithfully,

Micky Turner

Note: the manufacturer has conducted it's own study and found it to be highly effective (surprise, surprise)

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_breaki...

Some studies have also linked the drug to kidney disease and other severe side effects:
https://ascpt.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/do...
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article...

The drug is touted by the father of Covid 19 himself 'Anthony Fauci' and has recently been praised by our own Ashley Bloomfield.

Hi Melody,

Thanks for providing the information!

Here is a summary of the details:

Remdesivir is a failed Ebola drug. It was designed to treat Ebola, but was proven ineffective.

Pharmac have relied on the manufacturers own trial to assess the efficacy of the drug in treating Covid 19. Manufacturers trials are known to be at high risk of bias.

Two recent independent trials have shown Remdesivir has no effect on Covid 19.

Remdesivir is not endorsed by the World Health Organization as a treatment for Covid 19.

Remdesivir costs $586 per vial. It takes 6-12 vials to treat one person.
The total cost per person is $3516 - $7032.

Remdesivir does not have Medsafe approval in New Zealand. The documents indicate Remdesivir does not even have provisional emergency consent and in fact would not be able to gain provisional consent (likely due to the lack of trial evidence) - therefore Medsafe advised it should be purchased under section 29 of the Medicines Act.

The documentation does not state which medical practitioner requested Remdesivir under section 29 of the Medicines Act. Section 29 offers a work around for supplying medicine for a particular patient - but is unclear about purchasing in bulk for potential patients.

In September 2020 Pharmacology and Therapeutics Advisory Committee members considered that the quality of the available evidence for the use of remdesivir for the treatment of COVID-19 appeared to be low and did not consider they were well placed to provide the required advice to Pharmac as it appeared the decision to fund remdesivir had already been made.

In September 2020 the Critical Care Advisory Group communicated via email regarding the priority of different groups for access to remdesivir. The members noted the concerns about the quality of the evidence available for the effectiveness of remdesivir;

A document dated September 2021 states that Pharmac extended the current agreement dated 31 August 2020 between Pharmac and Gilead Sciences to include an additional vials of Remdesivir.

Cheers - Micky Turner

Medicines Act 1981
29 Exemption for medicine required by medical practitioner
(1) Neither section 20 nor section 24 shall prevent—
(a) the supply by any person to any medical practitioner, on the medical practitioner’s request, of any medicine required by that medical practitioner for the treatment of a particular patient currently under that medical practitioner’s care; or
(b) the administration by any medical practitioner of any such medicine to any such patient.