The Pharmacy Guild of Australia (PGA) has announced that the decision by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) to backflip on its restriction on the availability of an asthma medication highlights that the PBAC’s decisions are not set in stone.
Welcoming the reversal, National President of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia Trent Twomey said it was a pragmatic and common sense win for patients.
“Quite clearly the original decision to restrict availability of this important medicine was wrong,” Professor Twomey said.
“There was no logic to it, and the PBAC has now seen sense.
“This whole issue highlights that PBAC decisions can be reviewed and reversed when there is clear and demonstrable evidence that they are wrong.
“The PBAC decisions are not sacrosanct. They are – as they should be – open to robust and evidence-based examination.”
The PBAC asthma medicine reversal comes just a month after it announced, without any warning, the introduction of limitations which required specialists to prescribe fluticasone propionate 50mcg for children under the age of six.
Under the PBAC decision last month, the medicines for children aged six years and under had to be initially prescribed by a respiratory specialist, and then could only be prescribed with authority approval by Medicare.
In addition, patients over the age of six could no longer access the medicine as a pharmaceutical benefit, forcing them to buy privately which imposed a significant cost burden, primarily for those with concessional status.
Also, there were no equivalent alternatives available for patients over the age of six.
Text by: PGA
