THE Pharmacy Guild is highlighting that the "backflip" by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC), on restricting the availability of an asthma medication, means the body's decisions are not set in stone.
Welcoming the reversal, National Guild President Trent Twomey said it was a pragmatic and common sense win for patients.
"Quite clearly the original decision to restrict availability of this important medicine was wrong," Twomey said.
"There was no logic to it, and the PBAC has now seen sense.
"This whole issue highlights that PBAC decisions can be reviewed and reversed when there is clear and demonstrable evidence that they are wrong.
"The PBAC decisions are not sacrosanct, and they are - as they should be - open to robust and evidence-based examination."
The PBAC asthma medicine reversal comes just a month after it was announced, without any warning, saw the introduction of limitations which required specialists to prescribe fluticasone propionate 50mcg for children under the age of six (PD 15 May).
Under the PBAC decision last month, the medicines for children aged six years and under had to be initially prescribed by a respiratory specialist, and also only be prescribed with authority approval by Medicare.
In addition, patients over the age of six could no longer access the medicine as a pharmaceutical benefit, forcing them to buy privately, imposing a significant cost burden, the Guild statement concluded.
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