Leading healthcare provider, ProCare, has today welcomed Pharmac’s announcement they will be fully funding the EpiPen brand of adrenaline auto-injectors from 1 February 2023.

This will see eligible people receiving up to two funded EpiPens, which would otherwise cost between $100 - $350 and last for 12-18 months.

Bindi Norwell, ProCare Group CEO, says: “This is a fantastic result for whānau who live with someone or experience anaphylaxis themselves. For some, the financial burden was forcing them to make the difficult decision to risk going without it.

“We are pleased to see that Pharmac has agreed with the suggestion we made in our submission to extend prescribers to include any relevant practitioner, including Nurse Practitioners and Pharmacist Prescribers. This will go a long way to ease the initial burden placed on General Practices with an estimated 12,000 eligible people in the first year.”

Allan Moffitt, Clinical Director at ProCare, says: “This announcement will grant peace of mind to those who have underlying health conditions and our Pacific people, in particular, who are more than twice at risk of having anaphylaxis through food allergy than our Māori or Asian populations*”. 

“Given the increasing incidence for food allergies and anaphylaxis (for some populations this has increased three-fold in the past ten years), we are very pleased to see Pharmac has moved to subsidise this lifesaving treatment. Also, that today’s announcement includes additional prescribers to spread the work, and consideration for support and education for the community so they can use EpiPens effectively,” concludes Moffitt.

ProCare made a submission in support of this proposal in October 2022, noting initial concerns around the strain on General Practitioners to prescribe the medication, health literacy of the community, and additional auto-injectors for particularly vulnerable populations.

*Kool B, Chandra D, Fitzharris P, Adult food-induced anaphylaxis hospital presentations in New Zealand Postgraduate Medical Journal 2016;92:640-644.