Shipment of Covid pill arrives

Close to 30,000 courses of a preventive Covid-19 pill have arrived in New Zealand and will be available via prescription from next week, Health Minister Andrew Little says.

The Government bought a total of 60,000 courses of the drug, an oral antiviral called molnupiravir, which is designed to be taken at home in the first few days of a person testing positive and prevent the need for hospital care.

While drug-buying agency Pharmac negotiated the deal in December last year, Medsafe didn’t receive an application from the manufacturer, Merck, until February 23. It was approved on April 14.

‘‘It would have been nice to have these some time ago, of course,’’ Little said, ‘‘but Covid isn’t going to go away.’’

The shipment arrived in Auckland yesterday afternoon.

Little said: ‘‘We already have four medicines . . . being used in hospitals, and this month another antiviral, Paxlovid, started being used to treat people at home.’’

Molnupiravir and Paxlovid now have the same strict access criteria, focused on those who are most at risk of severe Covid-19.