Boyd Swinburn: Auckland University professor on whether or not the Government needs to fund Wegovy

There's expectations weight-loss drug Wegovy will eventually be funded publicly, according to experts.

It's become available from pharmacies under prescription - from today.

It's not funded by Pharmac, and costs about $500 dollars per month. 

Auckland University population nutrition professor, Boyd Swinburn, says that is unaffordable for the public purse.

"When the first generation of these drugs come off patent, their price will drop enormously and that will give Pharmac a chance to really negotiate the price."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Heather do for sea wait loss drug with GOVI is
available in New Zealand from today, but it isn't cheap.
It's not funded by Farmac, so anyone who wants to
actually use it has to shell out five hundred bucks
a month, and this prompted a debate about whether we
should be funding it. Professor Boyd Swinburners from Auckland University
School of Population of Health and with us Hi, Boyd, Hi, Heather,
do you think we should publicly fund it?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
I think in the end it'll get on the public
public funding, but it won't be at five hundred bucks
a month. When these early drugs, the first generation of
these drugs come off patent, their price will drop enormously
and that'll give Farmac a chance to really negotiate down
the price, and that will make the cost effectiveness equation

(00:43):
very strong. I think. So we'll see it, we'll see
it come about, but not until then.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
How much cheaper do you reckon?

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Well, you just look at what we used to pay
for like cholesterol lowering drugs and so on. When they
first came out, it was huge and Farmac took a
long time to come around to funding those For the
whole population because of the cost. But in the end
they dropped off patent and now they're really cheap. But
I can't tell you the exact prices or what were

(01:12):
this is going to end up.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, do you think that we prescribe it for everybody over,
will make it available to people with a BMI over
thirty or.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Do you go no, Well that's the recommendation at the moment,
a BMI over thirty or a BMI over twenty seven with.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
That's a lot of people. I mean, according to one
health reporters, about one point five million adult New Zealanders.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
I know it's a huge amount. And it's similar with
high blood pressure. You know, we've got a lot of
New Zealanders with high blood pressure and we treat them, yeah,
with tablets as well, on a regular basis. And then
what do you reckon? Boy?

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Do you leave people? Because I mean the initial studies
are showing that you go and we'll go v and
you lose the weight, you come off and you put
the weight back on within a year. So do you
leave people on it permanently?

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Then? Yeah? Well, this is the thing about drugs that
don't work if you don't take them, and again the
analogy my cholesterol, that we people have high blood pressure,
high cholesterol because of a mix of their you know,
their genes and their lifestyle and their habits and all
that sort of thing. And we've got no problem funding

(02:23):
those or accepting that those people need to be on
them for you know, for a long time, probably their
life if they want to prevent the diseases that they
prescribed for it. So we do have to get our
mindset around that a little bit. For more from Heather
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