Australian patients to benefit from Coalition PBS commitment; policies for Bio-Pharma

The Australian Federal Coalition’s election commitment to restoring transparency, certainty and confidence to the process for listing medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme will benefit Australian patients as well as industry, according to Medicines Australia chief executive Brendan Shaw.

Dr Shaw said the Coalition’s commitment, set out in its Real Solutions for all Australians document, will help ensure Australians have universal and timely access to new prescription medicines, noting that “the Coalition’s promise to ensure medicines are listed on the basis of advice from the independent Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee rather than on the whim of Government is great news for patients and great news for the medicines industry.”

He continued: “The listing process has suffered a loss of some confidence, with Cabinet interference in PBAC decisions and difficulties in getting a number of new medicines listed. Restoring confidence and certainty to that process is critical for patients and for industry…I am encouraged that the Coalition has committed to delivering that certainty in the context of the PBS listing process.”