$15 Million Extra Funding For Specialised Drugs
From 1 January Australians living with HIV and a rare and serious enzyme deficiency disorder will benefit from new listings on Australian Government drug programs.
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1 January 2010
From today Australians living with HIV and a rare and serious enzyme deficiency disorder will benefit from new listings on Australian Government drug programs.
The listing of tenofovir with emtracitabine and efavirenz (Atripla®) to the Highly Specialised Drugs Program will provide enhanced treatment for many Australian HIV patients.
This is a combination of three drugs for the treatment of HIV and it is anticipated the listing will lead to greater uptake of the treatment and improvements in treatment compliance as medicine regimens for patients are simplified.
The additional cost to the PBS will be approximately $15 million over four years.
Annual automatic adjustments to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) also come into effect today. The adjustment is automatic and occurs each year in accordance with the provisions of the National Health Act 1953.
For concessional patients in 2010 the co-payment is $5.40 and the safety net threshold is $324.00. For general patients the co-payment is $33.30 and the safety net threshold is $1281.30.
There have also been changes allowing the prescribable amount of two fungal infection treatments posaconazole (Noxafil®) and voriconazole (Vfend®) to approximately one month’s supply on one prescription.
A number of other minor changes to the PBS schedule coming into force from today are available at www.pbs.gov.au.
For more information contact the Minister’s office on 02 6277 7220
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