Australian prices of generic medicines have been slashed, says trade group

The price of generic medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is already being reduced by as much as 70%, despite claims in yesterday’s press to the contrary, pharma trade group Medicines Australia chief executive Dr Brendan Shaw argues.

Dr Shaw was responding to an article by Professor Philip Clarke, a professor at the University of Sydney in the Australian Financial Review titled “Time to slash cost of generics.” In this, Prof Clarke said that budget pressures demand a new approach to the way medicine is subsidized by the Australian government, which would do well to heed the example set by the Health Minister of Ontario, Canada.

“I’m not sure if Professor Clarke has been asleep for the past four months but a major reform to the PBS was passed by the Parliament in November and is already slashing the cost of off-patent medicines,” Dr Shaw said.