Patient Voice Initiative joins industry in concerns over finalising draft National Medicines Policy

Pharma News: The National Medicines Policy Review Committee is forging ahead with the draft consultation feedback survey, due to close 2 March 2022, despite many stakeholders voicing their continued concerns.

Jessica Bean, President of Patient Voice Initiative (PVI) told Health Industry Hub “We respect the knowledge and experience of the Review Committee, but believe a policy about working in partnership should be developed in partnership. 

“For partnership we need time to work together to better understand each others’ realities and develop a common understanding of the words that form the policy, as well as, what each stakeholder can bring to realising it. For instance, in the current National Medicines Policy draft, consumers and their organisations have been delegated a role which is largely limited to that of passing on information.”

She added “We acknowledge the process might take longer and be harder, but Australians, especially patients, are depending on us to get this right. When we finish, we should have a policy that better serves the people who depend on it to access the evolution of medicine now and into the future so we can feel proud of our National Medicines Policy again.”

The recent Review Committee stakeholder webinar highlighted several issues voiced by key stakeholders.

In addition to Medicines Australia urging the Minister of Health, Greg Hunt MP, to pause finalising the National Medicines Policy until after the Election, the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson has also expressed significant concern about the Government’s Review of the National Medicines Policy, stating that it cannot commit to endorsing or supporting the draft policy in its current form.

Janssen ANZ Managing Director, Biljana Naumovic said that the current consultation process for the review has been “highly restrictive, too short and deeply flawed”.

“Janssen believes that the Review is a vital opportunity to set our collective aspiration for better access to medicines for the next decade and we have engaged in good faith. Unfortunately, the Review appears to have substantially ignored the input we have provided.

“The consultation draft has extensive flaws. There is an absence of any aspirational vision around access to medicines for Australian Patients and there are no key performance indicators to measure the progress of the policy. Without either of these, the National Medicines Policy will leave Australian patients languishing at the back of the queue.

“We are hopeful that these issues can be resolved and we will continue to engage with the process in good faith – however we have a fundamental obligation to patients to advocate for the best possible access to innovative medicines. That is why we cannot, in good conscious, support the policy in its current form and will not commit to endorsing it unless we see substantial improvements,” she concluded.