#Auspol #USpol #BigPharma #PBS

continued…

<<These arrangements, BioPharmaDispatch reported, have been a common feature of PBS pricing policy for more than a decade and are considered crucial to ensuring Australia’s access to innovative medicines.

“If we’re paying more for medicines, it does ultimately mean either we’re taxing people more or ... we are forgoing something else such as giving hospitals less money.”
In 2023-24, there were 930 different medicines and 5164 brands listed on the PBS, costing the government $17.7 billion. Over the same period the pharmaceutical industry collectively paid back more than $5.3 billion in rebates to the Australian government, nearly 30 per cent of the total cost of the PBS.

Further delays in new drugs being listed on the PBS would place pressure not only on patients waiting for subsidised access to new treatments but also on the Albanese government’s ability to defend the integrity of Australia’s flagship medicines subsidy program amid rising geopolitical and commercial headwinds.

At the National Press Club on Tuesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signalled he would stand firm in the fight over who pays for pharmaceutical innovation – and to defend the PBS from external interference.

Albanese is expected to have his first face-to-face meeting with Trump on the sidelines of the G7 summit next week. Asked whether he would walk away from the meeting if he didn’t like the deal on offer, he replied: “On things like the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, the media bargaining code, our biosecurity in agriculture – they’re not on the table as far as we’re concerned.”

Take one example. Donanemab, a new treatment for early stage Alzheimer’s disease developed by US multinational Eli Lilly, is already approved for use by Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration but has not been listed on the PBS.

Health Minister Mark Butler revealed last month that the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, which determines the advice to government about which medicines end up on the PBS, will be considering Donanemab in July.

Before the drug can be listed on the PBS, Eli Lilly’s global head office would have to approve the price offered by the Australian government.

“Lilly believes there needs to be a serious conversation about the medicine reimbursement process in Australia, to ensure the PBS is enabling people to access new medicines,” Tori Brown, general manager Lilly Australia and New Zealand, tells The Saturday Paper. “Australians deserve a medicines evaluation system reflecting 21st century pharmaceutical innovation – which is why Health Minister Butler has instigated a review of the PBS. Despite Australia’s high GDP per capita, our reimbursed medicine prices are amongst the lowest globally. The low pricing of medicines in Australia does not reflect the value of innovative medicines or fairly contribute to research and development costs.”>>

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#Auspol #USpol #BigPharma #PBS

continued:

<<Some of that effect is already visible, with industry sources saying there is evidence that pharmaceutical companies are pausing pricing approvals for new PBS listings, and in some cases reconsidering whether to apply for market authorisation at all, wary that Australia’s low published prices could be used against them in US negotiations.

“We also could see some medicines withdrawn from the Australian market to actually avoid detrimental pricing sequences,” MacLeman says. “And so, from our perspective, there will be a potential flow-on effect to Australia, and we may find that Australians will miss out on new medicines, and that it may have an impact on our very vibrant life sciences ecosystem.

“Because these innovative medicines companies will make decisions about where they’re going to invest and that could include not only the approval of medication and the reimbursement of medication but also where they do their clinical trials and where they invest in the education of our clinicians and provide healthcare.”

Another industry insider described the response from pharmaceutical companies as “not coordinated but cautious”. They said it was “more of a defensive crouch in a system where pricing in one market can now threaten revenue in another”.

“It’s a wait-and-see approach,” one Australian pharmaceutical executive tells The Saturday Paper. “But every delay could mean that someone here goes without treatment.”

Last week, Australian pharmaceutical industry trade publication BioPharmaDispatch reported that global pharmaceutical companies have imposed a pause on pricing approvals, including for new PBS listings, while the industry builds its understanding of the implications of Trump’s executive order.

According to BioPharmaDispatch, these delays are being compounded by the increasing resistance of health department officials to approve special pricing arrangements, under which pharmaceutical companies rebate the difference between the published price for medicines and the private price that the Australian government is actually prepared to pay.>>

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#Trump’s #ExecutiveOrder includes pressuring foreign governments to pay more to #pharmaceutical companies for their #medications & expecting those companies to VOLUNTARILY lower their #prices in the #US.

#DrugPrices #BigPharma #medicine
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/delivering-most-favored-nation-prescription-drug-pricing-to-american-patients/

@Nonilex

I'll believe it when it happens.

This makes far too much sense for this kleptocracy - and is far to easy to block with a few payments and calls by #BigPharma

Both sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly, said they expected the policy to come from the agency that oversees #Medicare and #Medicaid health programs.

The first source said he had been told directly by govt #health officials that they were exploring such a policy, which he described as a mid-level priority for the #Trump Administration as it tries to lower #drug prices.

@DemocracyMattersALot

Here's what I think. They want this #tech abandoned "because" it is so promising.

If we have a cheap cure / #vaccine for most #cancer, who loses the most?

#BigPharma, that's who.

But if it's abandoned & quietly repackaged & sold to Big Pharma....

With all the respect @rms, but RFK jr. is FOR savety testing, NOT anti-vax. That's why he's arguing (unlike you) against #BigPharma and their corruption. Of course you won't read that in the guardian, but you could learn all about at Michel Chossudovsky's independent news outlet...
https://globalresearch.ca

btw: Could you help me please with textile colors on this portrait? (all reference photos been bnw)

Sincerely,
Hugo

@petergleick Not fossil fuels How can an economy run without #cars and #emissions? It'll lead to the loss of millions of jobs in #bigoil, #weightloss, #bigpharma and #healthcare industries.

And without all the grants our politicians get from these industries we can't build more roads and cars. It'll lead to #anarchy.