Budget 2015: Federal Government to subsidise $1.3 billion life-saving drugs

Patients waiting on life saving medicines will get a sweetener in this week’s budget with the Federal Government spending $1.3 billion on subsidies for new drugs.

Health minister Sussan Ley said medications for melanoma, breast cancer and blindness would now be listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

“Access to new medicines is crucial if we’re to help Australians beat life-threatening diseases such as cancer, as well as overcome chronic and degenerative conditions that can rob them of their independence,” Ms Ley said.

“However, new drugs often come with an expensive price tag often out of reach for many patients.”

The funding for new cancer drugs is part of a bigger push to improve detection and treatment of cancer, with more details to be unveiled next week.

The drugs to be subsidised include:

• Trametinib (Mekinist®) for metastatic melanoma, at a cost of $437 million over four years
• Pertuzumab (Perjeta®)
• Trastuzumab (Herceptin®)
• Trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla®) for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer, at a cost of $191 million over four years.

The Federal Government has signalled it will ask the pharmaceutical industry for substantial savings, in part to free up money to fund new expensive drugs.

“With more and more new drugs in the pipeline in coming years, taxpayers are easily looking at spending $50 billion on making medicines more affordable for patients over the next five years,” Ms Ley said.

“That’s why the Government is proposing sensible measures across the pharmaceutical supply chain that ensure every dollar taxpayers invest in subsidising existing drugs is spent as efficiently as possible so we can continue to invest in new innovative medicines as well.”

Ms Ley said the $1.3 billion would come from within the health portfolio.

“My responsibility is to look across the portfolio. These drugs will be provided within existing allocations. There’s no new money for drugs in this tight fiscal environment,” she said.

“It will save lives, help Australians with debilitating conditions and fulfil our undertaking when we came into government than when drugs were approved by PBAC (Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee) we would not delay in listing them.

“These listings are a demonstration of our faith in making sure that patients have the earliest possible access to medicines.”

Savings measures put before the pharmaceutical industry include the government paying a lower price for generic medicines and a five per cent cut to the price for new innovative drugs.

Medicines Australia chief executive Tim James has said the changes would make it much harder for people wanting access to new drugs.

“We see these changes as arbitrary, hasty and unplanned and that it would not be in the best interests of patients,” he said.

As part of the budget, the Government will extend free vaccinations for the debilitating shingles virus to older Australians aged 70 to 79 by listing it on the National Immunisation Program.

Patients with eye conditions causing blindness will benefit from expanded access to the drug ranibizumab (Lucentis), which is currently subsidised for macular degeneration.

From July 1, ranibizumab will be expanded to include patients with retinal vein occlusion (RVO) and diabetic macular oedema (DME).