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MSD’s Keytruda® Receives Early Access Funding After Reversal of Health NZ Decision

Aug 6, 2024

On 6 August 2024, Health New Zealand announced that it will now allow a small group of cancer patients to receive free early access to MSD’s Keytruda® (pembrolizumab) despite deciding earlier this week that it would not do so.

Pharmac is due to provide Keytruda® funding for head and neck cancer, triple negative breast cancer, colorectal cancer, bladder cancer and Hodgkin lymphoma from 1 October 2024.  However, despite MSD working on an early access programme (EAP) to permit eligible patients to receive Keytruda® for free before then, Health New Zealand reportedly said earlier this week that it would not provide the treatment earlier than the scheduled 1 October date.

Following “further advice from Health NZ clinicians”, Health New Zealand has now reversed its decision and confirmed it will provide early free Keytruda® access to approximately 20-30 patients.

This news follows MSD’s 1 May 2024 announcement that the results of its Phase 3 KEYNOTE-811 clinical trial demonstrated that Keytruda® (pembrolizumab), in combination with trastuzumab and chemotherapy, provided gastric cancer patients with a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement.