Health Minister claims no knowledge of patients dying while waiting to access new medicines

Federal Minister for Health, Ageing and Disability, Mark Butler, has acknowledged the explosive pace of innovation, calling it a “turbocharged period of discovery” in medicines and health technologies that promises to deliver “enormous quality of life.” Yet, speaking on ABC Radio, he denied being “aware of those cases” where Australians have died waiting for drugs that have yet to be listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).

Still, Minister Butler concedes that the system is under pressure. The “sheer scale” of new therapies is straining regulatory capacity, and pricing negotiations are becoming increasingly complex.

“Often the company wants a higher price,” he said, while reiterating the government’s responsibility is to secure the “best value for money for taxpayers.”

But pharmaceutical companies have long argued that the current Health Technology Assessment (HTA) framework undervalues innovation. Industry concerns focus on the reference to the lowest cost comparator. When a new medicine does not demonstrate significant improvement over existing therapies, its price is pegged to the cheapest alternative, regardless of what is actually used in everyday clinical practice. This approach fails to value innovation and fails to recognise the expertise of prescribers where the most prescribed therapy represents Australian therapeutic practice.

A recent example is the pricing of Pfizer’s 20-valent pneumococcal vaccine. It was set to be valued against the 7-valent pneumococcal vaccine, an outdated comparator that was listed on the National Immunisation Program (NIP) over two decades ago. This undervalues the addition of further serotypes that could significantly reduce the incidence and mortality of invasive pneumococcal disease.

The HTA Review Implementation Advisory Group (IAG) is expected to deliver its interim report to Minister Butler within days, with recommendation-specific advice due by the end of August. However, Minister Butler has signalled the scale of the task ahead, describing it as “a big reform that will set the PBS up for the next coming few decades at least.”

Medicines Australia is urging the government to act now on easy and low-cost recommendations from the HTA Review. The peak industry body is calling for interim funding in the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) to kickstart reform, and for the Labor government to prepare a policy package for the next federal budget.

In reimagining healthcare across the entire patient journey, Health Industry Hub^TM is the only one-stop-hub uniting the diversity of the Pharma, MedTech, Diagnostics & Biotech sectors to inspire meaningful change.

The Health Industry Hub^TM content is copyright protected. Access is available under individual user licenses. Please click here to subscribe and visit T&Cs here.