'Yesterday the authority section of the Health Insurance Commission must have had one of its busiest days on record due to the listing of the anti-smoking drug Zyban on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). I personally had much longer waits than usual to get through for an authority script and some doctors couldn't get through at all. One operator told me Zyban was the only drug she had had requests for on the day!' stated Doctors' Reform Society President Dr Peter Davoren.

'The affordability of such new drugs to the Australian public is now under direct threat as a result of the Federal Government allowing the pharmaceutical industry a say in the running of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC)' claimed Dr Davoren.

'Drugs such as Zyban which cost around $160.00 a month on Wednesday is now available to all Australians for the subsidised price of $23.00 a month and $3.50 for Health Care Card holders subject to the authority rules as of Thursday 1.2.01. Rigorous assessment of all new drugs by the PBAC, an independent group of experts, results in such drugs becoming available to all of us at a affordable price' said Dr Davoren.

The scientific and economic decisions of the PBAC cannot be impartial if the pharmaceutical industry has a seat on the committee. The industry's interest is in profit, not necessarily the wisest way to spend public money. In fact if the industry had its way the Scheme would inevitably be destroyed due to a blow out in costs.

For further information:

Dr Peter Davoren
or
Dr Tim Woodruff

2 Feb 2001

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