On 9 August 2024, New Zealand’s Pharmaceutical Medicines Agency (Pharmac) announced that it is seeking commercial bids from suppliers for the supply of bevacizumab for a range of cancers.
Bevacizumab is currently funded in NZ hospitals for recurrent respiratory papillomatosis, ocular neovascularisation and exudative ocular angiopathy. Pharmac is now seeking funding applications for its use in hepatocellular, colorectal, ovarian and cervical cancers and glioma.
Pharmac states that it is following a competitive procurement process “because there are multiple potential suppliers of bevacizumab in New Zealand”. Roche’s Avastin® (bevacizumab) has been approved in New Zealand since 2009 and is currently indicated for a range of cancers. Bevacizumab biosimilars have been approved in New Zealand for Amgen (Mvasi®, 2021), Pfizer (Zirabev®, 2021), Biocon/Maxx Pharma (Abevmy®, 2022) and Celltrion (Vegzelma®, 2024).