Australia just gave a major innovation a miss.
Despite recommendations and regulator approval, new breakthrough medicines for treating hepatitis C were omitted from the December pharmaceutical subsidies list.
In an article published in PharmaDispatch, Hepatitis Australia CEO Helen Tyrell pointed out that the latest Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) listing published on 1 December are missing the four most innovative medicines ever developed for treating hepatitis C.
The article went on to highlight why the omission of the new hepatitis C drugs are at odds with the Prime Minister’s innovation agenda:
- Interferon-free therapies represent the greatest innovation in hepatitis C in a generation promising to cure more than 90 per cent of people with hepatitis C in just 12 weeks.
- For every month that access to these medicines is denied, 250 Australians with hepatitis C develop serious and potentially life-threatening liver disease.
- This year alone, 700 Australians will lose their lives to liver disease directly attributable to hepatitis C.
"But Prime Minister, if you want Australia to be a country that encourages, values and rewards innovation, then you have to be prepared to fund the fruits of medical innovation. Research for research’s sake is no good for anyone," Ms Tyrell wrote.
"Achieving the best possible price for medicines is a laudable aim – but a policy that requires every dollar spent on a new medicine to be offset with a dollar saving from another medicine is counterproductive to the Government’s innovation agenda."
The new hepatitis C medicines belong to a group of drugs known as Direct Acting Antivirals (DAA). They are taken orally for shorter periods than current treatments, achieve over 90 per cent cure rates and usually have little side-effects.
The drugs, Sovaldi, Harvoni, Daklinza and Viekira Pak were recommended for listing by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) and approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). The Australian government had been negotiating pricing with the manufacturers.
