PEAK wholesaler group the National Pharmaceutical Services Association (NPSA) has said it welcomes the Government's commitment to provide further CSO funding to them in this year's Budget (PD yesterday).
New agreements with Medicines Australia and the Guild will now mean CSO wholesalers are compensated for the impact from cuts to medicine PBS prices.
"The funding delivered in this year's Federal Budget is in some ways an acknowledgment that an imbalance exists within the pharmaceutical supply chain in Australia," NPSA chairman Mark Hooper said.
In its submission to the Review of Pharmacy Remuneration and Regulation, the NPSA advocated for several changes to address longer-term remuneration issues, namely, indexation of the Community Service Obligation, a medicine pricing floor and tiered mark-up structure on high priced drugs.
Currently less than 10% of drugs are profitable to distribute, the NPSA said, adding "systemic issues within the current remuneration model threaten timely patient access to critical medicines".
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