Australian government U-turn on PBS listing of drugs

More than 160,000 Australians per year will benefit from the Australian Government’s decision to provide subsidised access to 48 medicines, including treatments for serious heart conditions including heart failure in infants and children, rare but serious infections like tuberculosis, and cancer.

These listings, which will take effect December 1, include drugs that were deferred in February and new drugs recently considered and approved for listing by Cabinet. When some listings on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) were deferred in February, the government said it would reconsider these drugs when fiscal circumstances allowed.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Health Minister Nicola Roxon said that budget savings created by price reductions arising from more competitively priced medicines, as well as a number of recent Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) recommendations, mean that it is now possible to list these medicines.