PBS listing of life-saving cancer medicine to save patients more than A$200,000

The Australian government says it will drastically reduce the cost of a life-saving new medicine, which uses a patient’s own immune system to track down and destroy cancer cells.

From May 1, classical Hodgkin’s lymphoma patients will no longer pay over A$200,000($155,520) per course of treatment, now only paying a maximum of A$39.50 per script, with concessional patients – including pensioners – paying just A$6.40.

The drug in question is US pharma giant Merck & Co’s (NYSE: MRK) Keytruda (pembrolizumab), which is an immunotherapy medicine, part of the next wave of medical breakthroughs, working with a patient’s own immune system to recognize cancer cells and destroy them and generated global sales of $3.81 billion for the company last year.