Most expensive treatments remain out of reach without health reform
A 591 day wait for new treatments to be bankrolled by the Albanese government is leaving essential care out of reach.
Patients are waiting nearly 600 days to access medicines to which the Therapeutic Goods Administration has given the green light, new research has revealed, amid calls for reforms to the negotiation process with the pharmaceutical sector.
Pharmaceutical body Amgen’s Australian Patient Access Gap report shows patients wait an average 591 days to access medicine’s green-lit by the TGA between January 2021 and April this year through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
Only 20 per cent of medicines were approved on their first application, and more than 40 new medicines have been in limbo for over 1000 days.
Better Access Australia chair Felicity McNeill, who led the PBS from 2010 to 2015, said Health Minister Mark Butler was responsible for access delays.
“These committees take direction from the Health Minister. These reviews … are the Health Minister’s reviews,” Ms McNeill said. “This system is broken and he doesn’t know how to fix it to help patients.”
She pushed to reduce average waits to 100 days across the board through a structural reform of negotiation processes.
“The PBAC is an independent expert body … under legislation, the government cannot list a new medicine on the PBS unless the PBAC makes a recommendation in favour of its listing,” a Health Department spokesperson said.
“Sometimes companies wish to seek higher prices, not supported by clinical evidence, which can lead to multiple submissions to the PBAC.
“PBS process improvements … have reduced the time from PBAC consideration to PBS listing, with a major objective being to reduce the time from PBAC minutes to PBS listing by an average of two months.”
Paul Cross, who was an adviser to past health ministers Michael Wooldridge and Kay Patterson, said PBS listing submissions were “price negotiations, pure and simple”.
“These committees know that the company is not putting in the best price. So it’s kind of like buying a new car or a house. The difference is that these negotiations take two years,” Mr Cross said.
“We pretend it’s a technical process, and Mark Butler uses the same lines that ministers have used for 25 years, (saying) it’s an independent process, which it isn’t.”
Retired navy engineer John Boland, 74, had to dig into his super to pay for $60,000 of Lutetium therapy prostate cancer treatment.
“It was $20,000 but it was a good investment because we found something that actually worked,” Mr Boland said.
“It seems such a tragedy. I was able to find the $20,000 but I’m sure there are many men or families who can’t.”
Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia chief executive Anne Savage argued Mr Boland was a victim of broader systemic issues.
“For patients who are caught in this access gap, it’s harrowing … medicines are completely out of reach to them because they’re incomprehensibly unaffordable,” Ms Savage said.
Add your comment to this story
‘Clean it up’: state poised to regain control of key hospital
The Minns government is preparing new legislation to seize back control of scandal-prone Northern Beaches Hospital after its partial owner entered receivership.
First it was coffee, then I realised other smells were gone
Losing a sense of smell can be an alarming signal of other potential diseases down the track, including mental decline. But there are ways to reverse the loss.
To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Register
Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout