{"id":8526,"date":"2020-10-04T12:54:28","date_gmt":"2020-10-04T12:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=8526"},"modified":"2020-10-04T12:54:28","modified_gmt":"2020-10-04T12:54:28","slug":"budget-to-deliver-better-access-to-life-changing-medicines-for-liver-cancer-eye-conditions-and-parkinsons-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/10\/04\/budget-to-deliver-better-access-to-life-changing-medicines-for-liver-cancer-eye-conditions-and-parkinsons-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Budget to deliver better access to life changing medicines for liver cancer, eye conditions and Parkinson\u2019s disease"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Australians suffering from liver cancer, myopia and Parkinson\u2019s disease will soon have new treatment options, with amended PBS listings on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) coming into effect.<br \/>\nIn Tuesday\u2019s Budget, the Morrison Government will provide significant investment for new medicines including over $230 million to expand the listing Tecentriq\u00ae and Avastin\u00ae (atezolizumab and bevacizumab) on the PBS for use in combination to treat patients with advanced unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.<br \/>\nUnresectable hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common form of liver cancer, which often occurs in people with other chronic liver diseases. It also has one of the lowest survival rates of all cancer types.<br \/>\nFrom 1 November, more than 500 patients per year could benefit from PBS listing of this treatment, which would otherwise cost more than $170,000 per course.<br \/>\nAustralia will be the first country in the world to have this combination treatment publically funded for this type of liver cancer.<br \/>\nThis PBS listing has been implemented only two months after TGA registration, after it was assessed through the new TGA provisional approval pathway and considered for funding in parallel by the expert Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC).<br \/>\nThe PBAC recommended this treatment be funded because of its significant benefits for patients with liver cancer and the high clinical need for this targeted therapy.<br \/>\nAs at 1 October, PBS listings are now helping Australians living with eye conditions and Parkinson\u2019s disease:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Eylea\u00ae (aflibercept) will be expanding the listing for the treatment of subfoveal choroidal neovascularisation due to pathologic myopia. This condition is associated with unwanted growth of new blood cells in the eye that impact vision through a type of extremely acute near-sightedness. Without PBS subsidy, approximately 500 patients could benefit and would otherwise pay more than $5,000 per year of treatment<\/li>\n<li>Apomine Solution for Infusion\u00ae and Apomine Intermittent\u00ae (apomorphine) for the treatment of Parkinson\u2019s disease will be extended, to include access to maintenance treatment through community pharmacy in addition to hospitals. Without PBS subsidy, patients could pay more than $7,500 per script for this medication.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These listings were all recommended by the independent PBAC.<br \/>\nSince 2013, the Australian Government has approved more than 2,450 new or amended listings on the PBS. This represents an average of around 30 listings or amendments per month \u2013 or one each day \u2013 at an overall investment by the Government of $11.8 billion.<br \/>\nAlso from 1 October, treatments for high cholesterol and almost 20 other widely used medicines will be cheaper as a result of price disclosure policy, designed to ensure the PBS is sustainable and affordable for decades to come.<br \/>\nUnder our Government\u2019s price disclosure policy, 18 medicines sold as 224 brands listed on the PBS will be up to $6.02 cheaper for general (non-concessional) patients as at 1\u00a0October\u00a02020.<br \/>\nTwo medicines for high cholesterol, ezetimibe and rosuvastatin, are among the medicines which will be cheaper.<br \/>\nAround 60,000 patients per year will now pay $25.69 per\u00a0script for 10 mg tablets of ezetimibe, a saving of up to $5.21 per script.<br \/>\nAround 300,000 patients per year will now pay $15.42 per script for 10 mg capsules of rosuvastatin, a saving of up to $2.13 per script.<br \/>\nIn total, Australians will save $40 million for medicines priced below the general patient co\u2011payment of $41.<br \/>\nUnlike Labor, we are listing all medicines recommended by the medical experts on the PBAC. In 2011, Labor stopped listing medicines on the PBS because they could not manage the economy.<br \/>\nThe Morrison Government\u2019s commitment to ensuring that Australians can access affordable medicines, when they need them, remains rock solid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Australians suffering from liver cancer, myopia and Parkinson\u2019s disease will soon have new treatment options, with amended PBS listings on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) coming into effect. In Tuesday\u2019s Budget, the Morrison Government will provide significant investment for new medicines including over $230 million to expand the listing Tecentriq\u00ae and Avastin\u00ae (atezolizumab and bevacizumab) &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/10\/04\/budget-to-deliver-better-access-to-life-changing-medicines-for-liver-cancer-eye-conditions-and-parkinsons-disease\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Budget to deliver better access to life changing medicines for liver cancer, eye conditions and Parkinson\u2019s disease&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8526\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}