A$1.3 billion investment to list life-saving medicines in Australia

The Australian government will invest A$1.3 billion ($1.02 billion) listing new medicines and vaccines that will save lives and help thousands of Australians manage debilitating conditions in its 2015-16 Budget.

Minister for Health Sussan Ley announced on Saturday that Tuesday’s Budget would list new drugs to help Australians beat melanoma, breast cancer and blindness on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).The government will also extend free vaccinations for the debilitating shingles virus to older Australians aged 70 to 79 by listing it on the National Immunization Program.

Ms Ley said the announcement was a key part of the Abbott government’s commitment to ensuring Australian patients had affordable access to medicines when and where they needed them. The listing of A$628 million worth of new cancer drugs also formed part of broader package measures to improve the detection, treatment and prevention of cancer in the Budget, she noted.

Ms Ley said taxpayers currently invested almost A$10 billion annually subsiding drugs on the PBS, with another A$3 billion worth of new drugs being considered by government for listing on the PBS.This figure is expected to continue to grow in coming years, with the independent Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee meeting three times a year and anticipated to make well over 100 recommendations for new drug listings annually.

“With more and more new drugs in the pipeline in coming years, taxpayers are easily looking at spending A$50 billion on making medicines more affordable for patients over the next five years,” said Ms Ley, adding:“That’s why the government is proposing sensible measures across the pharmaceutical supply chain that ensure every dollar taxpayers invest in subsidising existing drugs is spent as efficiently as possible so we can continue to invest in new innovative medicines as well.”