AUSTRALIANS are living longer, healthier lives due to the introduction of new medicines, according to research from Columbia University Business School Professor Frank Lichtenberg quantifying the human and economic impact of innovative drugs.
Released yesterday at Medicines Australia's PharmAus19 conference at Parliament House, the study found premature mortality in Australia fell 22.6% between 1998 and 2015, with 94% of this fall attributed to better medicines and treatment.
New medicines launched in Australia between 1986 and 2000 reduced the total number of hospital stays in 2015 by 1.71 million days reducing hospitals costs by $3.47 billion, as well as some 3,500 lives saved last year by new cancer drugs.
In addition, medicines introduced between 1987 and 2003 contributed an additional 586,714 years of life to Australians aged up to 90 years in 2015.
Lichtenberg's research, Measuring the Impact of Pharmaceutical Innovation in Australia 1998--2018 was commissioned by Medicines Australia (MA) and a group of pharmaceutical companies.
He analysed the outcomes of pharmaceutical innovation on premature mortality, hospital utilisation and cancer patient outcomes up to 2018.
MA CEO, Elizabeth de Somer, said the work highlighted pharmaceutical intervention as both effective, and cost-effective.
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