News
Fresh attempt to expand Shingrix NIP eligibility
Its manufacturer has again asked the PBAC to recommend lowering the eligibility age of non-Indigenous Australians from 65 to 60.
A new application has been made to the PBAC to recommend lowering age eligibility of non-Indigenous Australians for free doses of Shingrix from 65 years to 60.
The manufacturer of Shingrix has made a fresh request for a recommendation to lower the age eligibility of non-Indigenous Australians for the drug on the National Immunisation Program (NIP) from 65 years to 60.
Glaxosmithkline Australia has submitted a request to the November meeting of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) to reduce the age eligibility for its recombinant zoster vaccine (RZV, sold as Shingrix).
At present, a two-dose course of Shingrix is available for free on the NIP for:
- people aged 65 years and over
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 50 years and over
- people aged 18 years and over considered at increased risk of herpes zoster due to an underlying condition and/or immunomodulatory/immunosuppressive treatments.
‘Economic evaluation’ was named by the PBAC as its
primary reason for not supporting the previous submission from Glaxosmithkline Australia for an NIP expansion for Shingrix, although it also noted the expansion could reduce protection for higher-risk people.
‘The PBAC considered vaccinating individuals at 60 years of age would result in a reduction in protection in older individuals when the prevalence of herpes zoster and post-herpetic neuralgia was higher and morbidity could be more severe,’ the committee wrote in its November 2025 meeting outcome report.
After
replacing the live attenuated herpes zoster vaccine (sold as Zostavax) on the NIP in 2023, more than 2.5 million doses of Shingrix were administered to adults aged 65 years and older in its first year on the NIP, compared to 97,000 the previous year.
A study by researchers at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance
, published in The Lancet in April 2026, showed a strong decline in shingles cases following the introduction of Shingrix to the NIP.
Every year,
between 10,000–15,000 people in Australia are diagnosed with shingles; however, for people not eligible for a subsidised two-dose Shingrix course on the NIP, it
can cost $560 to $600.
Dr Leanne Jones, a Tasmania-based GP and
Immunisation Coalition Board Member, said greater access to the vaccine would bring a ‘significant benefit’ to patients.
‘People are interested in the vaccine, but when you’re talking about those dollars and cents, people just don’t have that money to spend,’ she told
newsGP.
‘One of the things about shingles is, everyone knows someone who has had shingles and knows how miserable they were.
‘So, a recommendation from a GP to have a vaccine is always good because we are on the frontline.’
Log in below to join the conversation.
herpes zoster National Immunisation Program PBAC shingles Shingrix
newsGP weekly poll
Have you ever found out that a patient has previously failed to disclose their use of GLP-1 medicines to you as their usual GP?