Australian Senate Committee recommends Cabinet threshold for PBS approvals be increased

Australia’s Senate Community Affairs Committee has recommended that the threshold for Federal Cabinet approval for listing new medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) be increased. In its report released last week, the Committee recommended that the threshold should be immediately increased from its current A$10 million ($9.8 million) to a level reflecting its original 2001 value and that the threshold should be indexed annually to maintain its real value.

“This is a major step forward and will make a big difference to Australian patients if the Government sees the wisdom in implementing it,” said Brendan Shaw, chief executive of the trade group Medicines Australia.

He said: “It’s time for the government to implement this sensible reform to the PBS. We now have both the Productivity Commission and a key Senate Committee recommending to government that the current A$10 million Cabinet threshold be increased and indexed. The fact that the Senate Committee has unanimously recommended this across party lines is particularly significant.”