Medicines Australia says PBS wait times bigger issue than US tariffs

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The federal government is bracing for new tariffs on one of Australia's largest exports to the United States, with President Donald Trump threatening to hit pharmaceuticals with tariffs as high as 250 percent. But the drug industry's peak body says the sector is facing a far more urgent problem, warning people could die while waiting for lifesaving medicines to be listed on the pharmaceutical benefits scheme.

Transcript

00:00According to Medicines Australia, which says that people could die while waiting for medicines

00:07to be listed on the PBS.

00:09So we know the federal government is frantically working to try to shield Australia from Donald

00:15Trump's ever-expanding tariffs, with the US president even this week flagging a potential

00:20pharmaceutical tariff of 250%.

00:23But Medicines Australia says there's a much more pressing issue closer to home, and that's

00:28how long it takes to list medicines on the PBS.

00:32It says the process is overly complex, takes too long, and involves excessive red tape.

00:38Rare Cancers Australia says as a result of this, patients are often having to find money

00:44to pay for medicines that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, while they wait for

00:49those medicines to be listed on the PBS.

00:52Of course, under the PBS, medicines are subsidised by the government, which means they only cost

00:57currently about $30 for the patients.

01:00The government picks up the rest of the tab.

01:02But Rare Cancers Australia says while people are waiting for that listing, they're having

01:06to either withdraw money from their superannuation, remortgage their houses, or even resort to crowdfunding.

01:13So they're calling for urgent action here.

01:15This was the first comprehensive review of the system in 30 years.

01:19It was handed to the federal government last year.

01:21It made a raft of recommendations to streamline the process so that people can access medicines

01:26earlier.

01:27The federal government hasn't yet responded to that report.

01:30Instead, it set up an implementation advisory group, an expert group.

01:34The chair of that group, Professor Andrew Wilson, is also the former chair of the Pharmaceutical

01:38Benefits Advisory Committee, which decides what goes on the PBS.

01:42He says one of the issues is that the system that they're dealing with is incredibly complex.

01:47And he says there's questions about whether the incremental changes we've seen to the PBS

01:51in the past and the PBS listing process have helped or even made it more complicated.

01:57So that's what they're dealing with at the moment.

02:00Medicines Australia says there's added incentive for things to move along.

02:04Of course, we know that the lengthy PBS listing process is one of the long-held gripes of US

02:10pharmaceutical companies.

02:12Earlier this year, they pressed Donald Trump to target Australia with punitive tariffs, saying

02:16the PBS was egregious and discriminatory.

02:20And so Medicines Australia says if the government implemented the recommendations of this review,

02:25that would go some way towards assuaging the concerns of Donald Trump and the US pharmaceutical

02:30industry.

02:31Health Minister Mark Butler labelled the review that was done last year as visionary, but he's

02:37yet to formally respond.

02:38He set up that expert group.

02:40He says that that group will provide him with the interim findings very shortly, within potentially

02:45as early as next week.

02:47And then their final report is due early next year.

02:50Let's take a listen to Health Minister Mark Butler on News Breakfast earlier.

02:55We're getting an enormous number of new medicines come onto the market.

02:58This is happening around the world.

03:00We're living through this turbocharged period of discovery that's bringing more and more new

03:05medicines.

03:05And so making sure we can assess them and approve them very quickly to get them into patients

03:10as quickly as possible is something I've said is a real priority for us this term.

03:15The medicines industry, understandably, I guess, given their interest, want to make prices

03:19higher as well.

03:20So there will be a bit of a debate about how we do that.

03:24But I'm very much on the page of getting medicines more quickly into our system, our PBS

03:29system.

03:30It's a terrific system.

03:31And we're trying to make medicines cheaper at the same time for Australians.

03:35Now, the opposition has accused the federal government of dragging its feet in response

03:40to that review.

03:41It says that it was handed down almost 12 months ago and that it's unacceptable that the government

03:47has yet to respond and that Australians are missing out on affordable and life-saving

03:52medicines as a result.

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