PBS spending declining
September 30, 2013
Medicines Australia has hailed
the government’s Final Budget
Outcome 2012-13 statement which
was released on Friday, saying that
the figures confirm that “spending
on the Pharmaceutical Benefits
Scheme is going backwards”.
According to MA ceo Brendan
Shaw, government spending on
medicines last financial year was
$857 lower than the amount
estimated in the May budget.
In the papers, Treasury said that
the reduction in spending is due to
the “greater than expected impact
of price disclosure and cost-sharing
arrangements”.
Shaw said that the result shows
that the savings from price
disclosure are now “coming by the
truckload,” and said that the huge
cuts to PBS spending “have come
at a time when more and more
medicines are facing a logjam in the
listing process, patients are waiting
for new therapies, and the PBS has
seen the lowest number of new
molecules listed in 20 years.
“It’s imperative that the savings
coming from price disclosure be
used to speed up the listing of new
medicines for the community,”
Shaw urged.
He said that the medicines
industry looks forward to working
with the new government “to
ensure that the process of listing
new medicines is efficient and
that the substantial savings from
price reductions are invested in
new therapies for the Australian
community”.
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