Pharmacy Daily | CHF welcomes price cuts

The Consumers Health Forum has congratulated new health minister Peter Dutton for “pressing ahead with legislation to accelerate price cuts for prescription medicines”. As revealed in Pharmacy Daily yesterday, Dutton, while strongly supportive of the community pharmacy sector, has indicated that the govt is “not in a position to ameliorate the impact of the 2 August changes to price disclosure”. CHF spokesman Mark Metherell said the government move “vindicates the CHF’s call for cheaper medicines in the face of a misleading campaign by pharmacy owners who have profited handsomely from inflated prices over the years”. He estimated that the changes from next month will reduce Australia’s medicines bill by about $250 million annually. “We applaud the Health Minister, Peter Dutton, for standing firm on this issue. “As he says, price disclosure is a free market solution which brings market forces and discounting practices to bear in a way that would not otherwise occur for subsidised prices,” Metherell said. The CHF is also calling for the government to release the Senate committee report into the review of chemotherapy funding, after Dutton’s comments at the Pharmacy Guild annual dinner on Tuesday where he confirmed that money would not be taken from the Fifth Community Pharmacy Agreement to redress the chemo reimbursement crisis. “CHF asks that Mr Dutton release the report so the public can have a better understanding of an issue that prompted so much anxiety among cancer patients,” Metherell concluded.

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