Pharmacy Daily | More PBS disappointment

INDUSTRY members are up in arms over the Federal Government’s decision to reject the Senate Committee’s recommendation to reinstate the ‘$10 million rule’. “This was the government’s opportunity to shut down the deferral issue once and for all,” CE of AstraZeneca Australia, Mark Fladrich told media. The $10 million rule basically meant that drugs which had received a positive recommendation by an independent committee for PBS listing and which would cost less than $10 million per annum, could bypass the Cabinet approval process. The Senate inquiry kicked-off after the Government’s decision last year to defer the listing of new medicines on the PBS, recommended by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, a move which caused uproar within the healthcare, consumer and patient environments. Speaking in the wake of the latest decision, Consumer Health Forum CE Carol Bennett said “the lack of a firm commitment leaves the door open for this government and future governments”. “We need to ensure access to essential drugs is protected from political interference,” she added. MEANWHILE the Federal Government also rejected the Senate Committee’s recommendation to reverse the current cost offset stance towards new medicines on the PBS. As such the cost offset will remain in place, and drugs new to the PBS will have to be balanced by savings. This position leaves life extension drugs and the patients that would benefit from them in murky uncertain waters, given that these drugs have no cost offsets.

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