Australian patients benefit from PBS changes; cancer research

New medicines for glaucoma, diabetes and advanced soft tissue sarcoma have been approved for listing on Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). Announcing the approval, Minister for Health Peter Dutton said the PBS subsidies would make the medicines more affordable for Australians who needed them.

For patients with diabetes, two combination medicines have been listed. These are linagliptin with metformin (sold as Trajenta Duo, from Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly), and saxagliptin with metformin (sold as Kombiglyze by AstraZeneca).

“Patients already had access to the individual medicines through the PBS, but many people need to use two medicines together to treat their diabetes,” Mr Dutton said, adding: “With the combination dose now listed on the PBS, these patients will save up to A$36.90 every time they get a script filled because they will only have to buy one fixed dose medicine instead of two.”

Savings for patients using Votrient

Pazopanib (sold as Votrient by GlaxoSmithKline) has also been approved for PBS listing for the treatment of advanced soft tissue sarcoma. “Patients with this rare cancer would pay around A$21,000 per treatment cycle for pazopanib without subsidised access through the PBS,” Mr Dutton said, noting that “the government believes that Australians should have access to new medicines through the PBS as soon as possible after they are proven.”

Mr Dutton also announced changes to the PBS Growth Hormone Program, which currently treats almost 1,900 Australian children and adolescents. The program is being extended to cover certain patients with hypothalamic-pituitary disease who have biochemical growth hormone deficiency. Higher doses of growth hormone will now be more accessible through the programme, for those patients where it is deemed clinically appropriate.

The changes will take effect on March 1,2014 and be published in the Guidelines for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme Growth Hormone Programme. All new PBS listings are subject to final arrangements being met by the suppliers of the medicine.

Australian government announces funding for cancer

Separately, in the latest announcement, dedicating almost A$186 million ($167 million) in CRC funding, the Australia’s federal government will create three new Cooperative Research Centers (CRCs) and extend four existing CRCs, including the Cancer Therapeutics CRC and the Hearing CRC to drive research that will deliver practical benefits.

The Cancer Therapeutics CRC, which will receive A$34 million, will build on the “drug-discovery engine it has already created to discover effective new drugs for major cancers and improve the lives of Australian children with cancer through tailored and personalised treatment.”