Medicines and Free Trade Agreement

3 November 2003

It beggars belief that Medicines Australia, the lobby group for the hugely profitable shareholder driven Australian arm of the international pharmaceutical industry (1/11), suggests that the Free Trade Agreement is not a threat to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. It is true that any changes agreed to will definitely be seen by John Howard as of net benefit to his agenda, but his agenda already includes asking parliament to approve increased copayments for drugs which will decrease access to those drugs and weaken one of the prime components of the PBS, affordability.

Reassuring us that the PBS is here to stay is as heart-warming as Howard’s reassurance that Medicare is here to stay. His Medicare is access to rebates that pay less than half the cost of a doctor’s visit, access to public hospitals after waiting a year in pain, and access to a PBS where the copayments are killing people because they can’t afford the drugs.

The pharmaceutical industry claims it wants fairness. Tell that to one of the millions dying of AIDS in a third world country, because this same industry has prevented that country from making affordable generic copies of their life saving drugs. This industry’s fairness is for their shareholders, not patients.

Dr Tim Woodruff

President

Doctors Reform Society

Published in The Australian

3 November 2003