Lung cancer pill added to PBS list

Australians with lung cancer could save as much as $90,000 a year after the medication Tagrisso is added to the PBS.

Australians with lung cancer could save as much as $90,000 a year after the federal government announced the listing of a cancer-fighting pill on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

The subsidising of Tagrisso from February 1 will bring down the cost of an individual script from $8000 — or $88,000 for an entire year of treatment — to a maximum of $40.30 a script.

“These are the announcements I like making the most,” Scott Morrison told reporters yesterday.

“Whether it is in drugs or ­providing clinical care, we are in this fight,” the Prime Minister said. “We are going to fight cancer together and that’s what our government is doing.”

A once-daily pill, Tagrisso has been shown to slow the growth of metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer in patients.

Melbourne-based cancer specialist Ben Solomon said the medication would help people suffering from a type of cancer that “does not discriminate”.

“It can affect people who have smoked and people who have never smoked in their lives before,” he said.

The pharmaceutical subsidy is part of a $2.3 billion investment in cancer medicines by the federal government.

AAP