Australians will not face higher drugs prices

Jane Halton, Australia's Health Department Secretary, was due to meet US counterparts in Washington DC, on Jan-uary 13 to discuss the scrapping of a pharmaceutical price control, ahead of a March review of the year-old Australia-USA free trade agreement. The Australian federal govern-ment denies that the prices of pharmaceutical products will be increased by scrapping the "evergreening" amendment to the FTA. The amendment was included at the request of the Labor opposition in order to penalize pharmaceutical companies that "stop other companies from introducing cheaper drugs."

Mark Vaile, the Australian Health Minister, says the price control is unnecessary, but that the US trade negotiators would still need to prove the case for amending the treaty. Meanwhile, Keiran Schneemann of Medicines Australia said that evergreening is not practised in Australia, saying: "when a medicine comes off patent, the generic indistry has every right to put a generic medicine on the market."