Is Australia better off?
March 19, 2013
PATIENTS would be worse off if
Australia adopted a New Zealandstyle
access to medicines policy,
according to Medicines Australia
Chief Executive Dr Brendan Shaw.
Responding to a report on
pharmaceutical prices published
this week by the Grattan Institute
(PD yest) Shaw said proposals to
cap spending on the Pharmaceutical
Benefits Scheme would limit
patient's access to medicines.
“If you want a how-to guide for
turning your health system into that
a third-word country, this report
would be it,” Shaw said.
“Capping the PBS would kill
consumer access to new therapies
as the experience in New Zealand
proves.
“It undermines the fundamental
principal of universal and affordable
access to medicines that underpins
the Pharmaceutical Benefits
Scheme and has done for 60 years,”
he added.
Shaw also went on to say that
“Anyone who wants to emulate the
New Zealand model of medicines
policy should remember that New
Zealanders have access to less than
half the number of new medicines
that Australians have and that New
Zealand is stone motherless last in
the OECD access to medicines
rankings”.
“So much so that when New
Zealanders can't access a variety of
new medicines in their country
they come over here,” he said.
MEANWHILE the Generic
Medicines Industry Association also
got in on the act, calling the
report’s concerns that the
Australian Government is paying
more than NZ for some generic
medicines “unfounded”.
“These concerns are unfounded
as the market-based price
disclosure policy ensures that the
government benefits from the
competitive generic medicines
sector in Australia,” GMiA said.
Speaking in the wake of the
report, CEO of GMiA Kate Lynch
said that reforms to the PBS
introduced in 2010 are currently
delivering savings to the public of
$1.9 billion over four years.
“The PBS is already subject to
complex policy reforms,” Lynch
said.
“For the sake of patients and
ensuring a secure and consistent
chain of supply, we need to get
those reforms bedded down first
before embarking on any more
policy change,” she added.
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