Professor Caroline de Costa, from the James Cook University School of Medicine, and Dr Michael Carrette were the first clinicians in Australia to prescribe RU486, having pioneered the Authorised Prescriber approach. Below they provide insight into the implications of last week’s important decision to recommend PBS listing for RU486. The decision, announced last Friday by [...]

Stephen Duckett, Health Program Director at the Grattan Institute, writes: The Commonwealth could save A$1.3 billion each year by reforming the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), according to a report released today by the Grattan Institute. The report, Australia’s bad drug deal, shows that if the PBS simply paid prices for drugs that many Australian public [...]

    The decision to delay further the introduction of subsidies for the anti-stroke drug, Pradaxa,  puts Australia at odds with the rest of the developed world. It also raises questions about the Government’s handling of Australia’s widely-respected Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, (PBAC). It was that committee which 18 months ago recommended that the new [...]

Deborah Gleeson, from La Trobe University, describes how international civil society stakeholders, including public health experts, have been excluded from the venue for all but one day of controversial trade negotiations in Auckland this week. We have gathered in Auckland to talk to the negotiators about our concerns regarding the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), a [...]

The Parliamentary Library has recently published a number of posts on their blog, FlagPost, that might be of interest to Croakey readers. Short extracts and hyperlinks have been included below. Thanks to the Parliamentary Library for allowing cross-posting. Competitive constraints in private health insurance raised – but broader debate needed by Amanda Biggs Competition in [...]

Blaming “the Government” for delays in PBS listing processes might turn out to be a poisoned chalice for the pharmaceutical industry, according to a new study in the Australian Health Review. Government policy changes, requiring Cabinet approval for new PBS listings, have been widely criticised by the pharmaceutical industry and other stakeholders.  In relation to [...]

Thanks to Fron Jackson-Webb from The Conversation for providing this latest wrap of  health and medical news. The stories below cover pharma industry lobbying, the pokies debate, and plenty more… *** The tricks companies use to get over-priced drugs on the PBS By Thomas Faunce, ARC Future Fellow at Australian National University: Boehringer Ingelheim, manufacturer of [...]

One of the first things Croakey learnt as a new, wet-behind-the-ears, political adviser was that there were only two things in Parliament House trusted by all sides of politics, the coffee at Aussies and the high quality of the research undertaken by the Parliamentary Library. Rebecca de Boer shows that nothing has changed since that [...]

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) has served Australians well for many years but recent policy changes are undermining the universality of this important health program. This is highlighted by new research which shows that Australia is falling behind the rest of the developed world in ensuring its citizens have access to affordable medicines. This research, [...]