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PDF printable version of Peter Dutton Misleads Patients on PBS Listings (PDF 224 KB)

28 November 2012

Shadow Health Minister Peter Dutton has again misled Australian patients about the listing of drugs on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

In a press release today Mr Dutton said:

“Labor’s record on new drug approvals is an abysmal decline by two thirds. PBAC positive recommendations were about 36% in 2008/09, declining to about 11% in 2011/12. Tanya Plibersek needs to explain if she has allowed Ministers Swan and Wong to stand over the PBAC to reduce PBS costs to the budget.”

“This is wrong and Mr Dutton should make a public apology for misleading patients. Suggesting that PBAC can be ‘stood over’ is highly insulting to the professionals involved,” said Ms Plibersek.

“Over the last five years, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) has consistently recommended 60% or more of the submissions for PBS listing.

“Specifically, in 2011/12 PBAC recommended 61 % of all submissions for PBS listing, not 11 % as Mr Dutton said.”

Ms Plibersek said PBAC was an independent expert advisory committee that considers not just the clinical effectiveness but also the cost effectiveness of a potential new listing.

Ms Plibersek said the Government has not cut dispensing fees for chemotherapy drugs.

Under the old arrangements, pharmacists were paid the same dispensing fee -- $6.52 -- for a complex chemotherapy drug as they were for other drugs such as statins. As a result of our reforms they are now paid $76.37 for dispensing chemotherapy drugs.

This includes an infusion fee (preparation fee) of $40.64. This did not exist under the old arrangements. It also includes a diluent fee of $4.83. Again, this did not exist under the old remuneration arrangements.

Pharmacists are also paid a distribution fee of $24.38, reflecting their former wholesaler mark-ups; and they continue to attract the $6.52 dispensing fee – totalling $76.37 plus the relevant retail mark up.

With regard to the chemotherapy drug Docetaxel, under new arrangements commencing on 1 December, prices paid by cancer patients for PBS medicines will not change.

Pharmacists and hospitals can’t charge patients extra for PBS medicines. For cancer drugs patients pay no more than $5.80 for a concession patient or $35.40 for a general patient for the whole course of treatment with that drug.

Docetaxel is an old cancer drug, and like all off patent medicines is subject to price disclosure. On 1 December the reimbursement amount the Government pays pharmacists who dispense the drug will be brought into line with the market price – the price pharmacists pay their suppliers.

Inflated prices have meant the government has paid in some instances $2,800 above the market price for this drug.

The 1 December change is part of the government’s landmark price disclosure reform that reduces the price of more than 1000 different generic drugs by as much as $15 per packet for patients. By paying less for old, off-patent drugs, we can afford more of the newest, most innovative cancer treatments.

Peter Dutton is on the record not just supporting the Expanded and Accelerated Price Disclosure policy, but claiming credit for it.

Until the reform came into force, for many years pharmacists had been charging the Government 20% to 50% above market price for some drugs, sometimes by thousands of dollars at a time.

Price reductions for older chemotherapy drugs as they have come off patent have saved taxpayers around $118 million. At the same time, 30 new cancer drugs for 15 different cancers have been subsidised for batter patient care.

Patient groups support these measures because they understand paying less for the off-patent drugs makes it easier for taxpayers to find the money for new listings on the PBS.

The Government is determined cancer patients will not miss out. The Government is working constructively with consumers, pharmacists, private hospitals and private health insurers to ensure chemo services are sustainable, however the cost of the drug itself must come down.