This week it has been announced that 20 new medicines will be subsidised by the national pharmaceutical benefits scheme (PBS) from today.
The types of conditions these subsidised medicines will treat include everything from cancer, diabetes and heart failure, to Botox for migraines and even nicotine replacement therapy.
Here is the full list of new medicines to be subsidised:
Peter Lyn is one person who has thoroughly welcomed the subsidy. He is a melanoma sufferer and after his disease returned a second time, qualified to trail the new medicine. In the trial it shrank his tumour by 64 per cent just after one month of therapy.
He does suffer some side effects of extra skin growth on his feed, curly hair and tiredness but says the medication saved him.
“I would have died three years past, I’ve dodged a bullet, it’s a miracle,” he says.
Other new medicines include three new Type 2 diabetes treatments including Forxiga and Invokana which use the kidneys to flush out glucose. The third alternative treatment is called Nesina and is a once-daily glucose lowering tablet for patients who are not well controlled on a single treatment.
There are two new subsidised treatments for multiple sclerosis, Tecfidera and Aubagio. A treatment for osteoporosis, Prolia and Botox is now subsidised to treat chronic migraine.
Alongside these new additions there are two prescription drugs that will fall in price.
The first is the biggest selling prescription drug Atorvastatin, which lowers cholesterol will fall by around $8.60 per script.
The second is the antidepressant drug venlafaxine will be subsidised and its 100,000 patients will save around $8.10 per script.
These price cuts stem from the government’s price disclosure policy which offers taxpayers and consumers access to the discounts offered by drug companies to chemists.
So, what do you think about the addition of these new medicines in the PBS and the price cuts? Are there some medications that you think are missed or are you glad these are included?