The Federal Health Minister is putting pressure on the Senate to pass legislation that could see the price of some of Australia’s most common medicines halved.
Sussan Ley last month signed off on new agreements with the Pharmacy Guild and Generic Medicines Industry Association that would save the budget more than $2 billion over five years.
The Government calculated that under the deal the price of more than 2,000 brands of prescription medicines would also fall, Ms Ley said.
“Overall within this package there is a very strong downward trend on the price of medicines, particularly the most common and popular medicines that people take,” she said.
Ms Ley said some of the most common medicines for cholesterol and heart conditions could halve in price, in some cases by $10 per script for general patients.
She said the Generic Medicines Industry Association deal meant the most expensive brand of a drug would be taken out of calculations when determining the price of generic medicines.
The Minister urged the Senate to pass the legislation this week.
“I’m never confident until we have a final vote and I don’t take any of those votes for granted, so I’ll be working hard just as I have been with Labor and the cross-bench senators.”
The sixth Community Pharmacy Agreement would also place new restrictions on how often pharmacists are paid incentives to prescribe a generic medication.
Pharmacists would be paid a new handling fee of $3.49 for medications that fall below the co-payment of $37.70.