Price increases also blocked
July 25, 2011
IT’S not just new PBS listings
which have been delayed due to
the government’s fiscal constraints
- the Generic Medicines Industry
Authority says it expects a “rash of
delistings” unless health minister
Nicola Roxon reverses a decision to
indefinitely defer the
implementation of Pharmaceutical
Benefits Pricing Authority (PBPA)
recommended price increases.
In its presentation to the Finance
and Public Affairs Senate Reference
Committee inquiry into the govt’s s
administration of the PBS, GMiA
argued that in order to ensure
patients have continued access to
medicines, sponsors of PBS listed
products must be confident that
price increases for medicines will
be granted when recommended by
the pricing authority.
By way of example GMiA cited the
first instance where one sponsor
had to delist a product from the
PBS due to an increase deferral.
According to GMiA, the unnamed
sponsor successfully applied for a
price increase to take effect on 15
March this year, but was informed a
month after the increase was to
occur, that the price increase would
not be implemented due to the
deferral decision by the govt.
Unfortunately, despite a
subsequent surprise decision by
the government to approve the
sponsor’s price increase on 21
June, the company was limited in
how it could react to the backflip
because it had already begun the
process of delisting - which will
take effect from 01 September.
“GMiA expects that further
products will be delisted from the
PBS as companies assess the
ramifications of the Government’s
decision,” a GMiA statement issued
on Fri afternoon said.
“These Government policies are
broad brushed policies that reduce
the price of medicines without full
consideration of the clinical
need or commercial viability of the
individual medicine” it said.
The PBPA review is an important
‘safety valve’ – providing sponsors
the “opportunity to seek a price
restoration for products that have a
clinical need and are not
commercially viable,” the
statement concluded.
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