Pharmacy Daily | MA warns on investment

Medicines Australia has higlighted new data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) which it says shows Australia is behind other industrialised countries when it comes to investing in medicines. The OECD Health Data 2014 report shows Australian public spending on pharmaceuticals is 0.7% of Gross Domestic Product, behind the OECD average of 0.8%. “Australia is investing proportionately less of its income on new treatments for things like cancer, diabetes, rare diseases and cardiovascular disease than many other OECD countries,” said MA ceo Dr Brendan Shaw, who described the figures as “very worrying.” He said the latest OECD figures don’t even take into account the “massive price reductions and billions of dollars in savings delivered in Australia over the last 12 to 18 months through price disclosure reforms.” The latest Federal Budget figures show spending on medicines as a proportion of GDP had actually declined further, to 0.6% in 2013. “While some critics lament Australia’s spending on medicines, the fact is we spend much less compared to many industrialised countries. “We are underperforming, and will continue to lag behind countries such as Germany, Japan and even Greece,” he said. Medicines Australia warned that it could be possible that the underinvestment in pharmaceutical spending “is also leading to higher spending in other parts of the health system.”

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