Guild warns of increased drug costs

PLANS to increase the exmanufacturer price of specific Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) listed medications to encourage pharmaceutical companies to maintain stock levels, could hurt patients’ pockets, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia warns.

Under the proposed National Health Amendment (Enhancing the PBS) Bill 2021 - which has received bi-partisan support - manufacturers of medications that have been identified as being at risk of supply shortages, will be required to maintain at least six-months’ supply of the drugs.

With below PBS co-payment prescriptions accounting for close to one-in-three medicines dispensed under the scheme, increases in ex-manufacturer prices would see the cost of medications increase for patients, or force pharmacies to absorb the price hikes - a move the Guild has rejected, BioPharma Dispatch reported.

Guild National President, Trent Twomey, told the publication that the organisation had raised concerns about the impact the Bill could have on the affordability of medicines for Australians.

“We have raised with the Government that this may result in increased costs,” he said.

“Out-of-pocket expenses for medicines [for Australian patients] are already the fourth highest in the OECD, after the US, Canada and Switzerland.”

MEANWHILE, Australian Labor Party MP, Pete Murphy, backed the Government’s Bill, but noted “it is a shame that it’s reactionary, after people have experienced the consequences of not being able to access medicines, of not being able to pay for medicines and of the global supply chain shortages - not beforehand”.

“It’s why it’s really important to have vision - vision like Labor’s proposal for a reconstruction fund to support manufacturing, to diversify manufacturing and to manufacture medicines as we come out of COVID,” he said.