The campaign led by the Consumers Health Forum of Australia (CHFA), involving APMA and an unprecedented number of other consumer health groups, as well as clinician, industry and academic organisations, to retain a world class system which provides timely and affordable access to the widest possible range of pharmaceutical products is continuing strongly. The campaign continues to gather support and has caused the Government to seriously reconsider its hasty and misguided decision.

The controversy over the listing of drugs on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, recommended by the independent expert Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC), erupted in February this year. Minister for Health and Ageing Nicola Roxon announced without any consultation or warning a new government policy that despite new drugs being carefully evaluated and recommended by the PBAC for listing on the PBS, Cabinet would now consider each drug on a case-by-case basis and decide whether to fund them immediately or delay the listing indefinitely as a means to make quick savings for the budget.

It is important to note that cost effectiveness is one of the key criteria for the PBAC in assessing drugs, and previously Cabinet had reviewed only drugs that would cost above $10 million in any of the first four years of listing. Until February 2011, only 2 drug recommendations had been rejected in over 60 years. Now Cabinet is reviewing all recommendations and has ‘deferred’ six (originally seven) drugs that could make a vital difference to the lives of chronically sick people. Not one Cabinet member has a medical, scientific or health economist qualification – and no criteria exist for their guidance!

CHFA Chief Executive Officer Carol Bennet met with Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Monday (August 9) to discuss the issue and announced that the PM is keen to achieve a solution as quickly as possible. According to the most recent advice received by APMA, the Prime Minister’s office will be seeking to identify a resolution to the issue by the end of September.

The involvement of Prime Minister Gillard comes as a Senate Inquiry into the process of listing medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) is finalising its consideration of an enormous number of submissions and several days of evidence.

The Senate agreed in late June to refer a range of issues arising from the Government’s policy to indefinitely defer PBS listing of many medicines to the Finance and Public Administration References Committee. The Committee is due to hand down its report by 18th August 2011.

APMA Secretary Lil Carrigan announced that APMA intended to make a detailed submission to the inquiry, in which it would outline its fears of serious consequences to a wide range of vulnerable people unable to access necessary medicines as a result of the Government policy. “It has been suggested that drugs required to save lives will be approved, and it is ‘only’ less serious effects such as pain relief which will be affected”. “Given that persistent (chronic) pain is universally recognised as a major cause of suicide, these suggestions are not only insensitive but ignorant.” Ms Carrigan stressed that “lack of or inappropriate medications for persistent pain will worsen that pain, worsen mental health outcomes, increase the costs incurred by the community as well as affected individuals and their families, and be a barrier to many returning to the workforce” she said.

In a campaign led by the Consumers Health Forum of Australia, APMA along with some sixty other consumer health groups endorsed a Statement of Public Intent on this issue earlier this month (available here). The long standing integrity of the pharmaceutical assessment process undertaken by the Government’s expert advisory body the Pharmaceutical Benefit Advisory Committee is seriously threatened and APMA looks forward to the Senate Inquiry clarifying :

• what  criteria and advice (if any) is being provided to Federal Cabinet to make decisions on which medicines should be subsidised by the PBS; and
• what financial impact this new process will have on the Federal Budget.

As CHF CEO Carol Bennett has stated, “In a developed country like Australia, the provision of affordable, timely and effective medicines is a right that should not become a political bargaining chip or a short-term measure for returning the Federal Budget to surplus.”

You can read APMA’s detailed submission here or access the dozens of other submissions made to the inquiry on the Committee’s website. The Committee held two days of public hearings in Melbourne and Canberra on July 21 and 25, and APMA and Painaustralia representatives gave evidence about the implications of the government’s new policy for people living with pain. You can also read a transcript of their evidence here.

More information about the issue here.