PM to intervene in drug row
August 18, 2011
THE government looks set to back
down on its controversial cabinet
approval process for new PBS
drugs, in the wake of a Senate
committee report released
yesterday which slams the policy.
The Finance and Administration
Committee report on the govt’s
administration of the PBS has sent
a “clear signal that Cabinet should
not interfere with the process of
listing new PBS medicines,”
according to Medicines Australia
ceo Dr Brendan Shaw.
It’s understood that Prime
Minister Julia Gillard met with
senior officials from Medicines
Australia, the Generic Medicines
Industry Authority and the
Consumers Health Forum last
week, and promised to work to
resolve the impasse by 30 Sep,
according to today’s Australian.
Shaw said the committee had
warned that the politicisation of
the PBS process risked the creation
of a “two-tier” health system.
Apart from Health Department
input, none of the 65 submissions
to the enquiry supported the govt’s
action on the issue.
“Patients don’t support it, doctors
don’t support it, the broader
community doesn’t support it and
industry doesn’t support it,” he said.
Another key recommendation
was that the government adhere to
the Memorandum of
Understanding it signed with the
industry in the lead-up to last
year’s Federal budget.
The new PBS cabinet approval
policy was widely seen within the
industry as a betrayal of principles
established in the MoU.
“Medicines Australia welcomes
the Committee’s recommendations
and strongly urges the Government
to act on them,” Shaw concluded.
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