THE Australian Self Medication Industry (ASMI) has issued its pre-Budget submission to the Federal Government, outlining three key health related recommendations.
Firstly, ASMI has suggested the down-scheduling of medicines from prescription to over-the-counter (OTC) with pharmacist consultation being the key enabler.
"A regulatory environment favourable to switch would encourage innovation in OTC medicines and also provide significant savings to the healthcare system," the submission said.
Secondly ASMI would like to see the reduction of restrictions on direct-to-consumer communications for Pharmacist Only (S3) medicines.
ASMI believes that the easing of restrictions surrounding these medicines used to treat every day conditions would be "in the interest of raising consumer awareness of safe and proven therapeutic goods".
Lastly they would like to see the introduction of data and market exclusivity mechanisms to help kick start research and innovation.
"Currently, a limiting factor to investment in innovation is that non-prescription medicines do not benefit from the same level of intellectual property protection as prescription medicines," the document explained.
ASMI says data and market exclusivity would be an incentive for companies to invest in non-prescription medicines.
The adoption of the ideas would "contribute to reducing Medicare and PBS costs and increase the sustainability of the Australian healthcare system, while also increasing consumer empowerment for improved health outcomes," the group added.
CLICK HERE to view ASMI's entire submission.
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