MA – give industry a break
September 1, 2011
THE Australian medicines industry
is facing a number of challenges,
and having a predictable regulatory
and reimbursement environment
and a long-term policy outlook is
critical to ensuring patients access
to new medicine, according to
Medicines Australia chief executive
Dr Brendan Shaw.
Addressing the Third Joint
Medicines Policy Conference Shaw
said “times are tough”.
Backing his claim, Shaw explained
that following strong growth in the
1990s and first half of the 2000s
exports have been stuck at around
$4b per annum since 2007-08, and
actually fell by 7% last year.
In addition Shaw said that the
number of new clinical trials has
fallen by 13% on average every year
since 2007.
The industry is also feeling the
pinch from government budgetary
cutbacks caused primarily by the
GFC, whilst an unprecedented
wave of patent expiries means
originator companies are being
forced to restructure.
“The bottom line is the decisions
that governments make today about
which medicines to subsidise,
when they do it, and how they do
it does have a knock on impact on
companies’ investment decisions
in the future,” he said.
“Decisions that governments
make now about approving and
funding new medicines have a
knock on effect to the types of
medicines on the market two
decades from now,” he added.
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 01 Sep 11To see the full newsletter, see the embedded issue below or CLICK HERE to download Pharmacy Daily from 01 Sep 11
