Officials talk down the prospect of MFN impact on the PBS

Two large statewide trials led by the University of Newcastle have shown that pharmacist-led services can safely and effectively manage uncomplicated urinary tract infections and supply oral contraceptives for women, improving timely access to care and ensuring referral to GPs when clinically required.

Senator David Pocock asked the official for the start date of the three- to six-month timeline, noting that the PBAC recommended earlier reimbursement access for paediatric patients three months ago.

The Marie Krogh Young Women in Science Prize is expanding into New Zealand as it returns for a second year, bringing recognition, funding and networking to early and mid-career women in STEM across Australia and New Zealand.

A minister's assurance that the review was moving to implementation rang hollow after officials cited a postponed, pencilled‑in meeting as evidence that recommendations are already being implemented.

The ethics-approved studies to reword definitions are being overshadowed by an apparently inconsistent approach to stakeholder participation and concern in the medical sector, given its sudden inclusion in a process from which it has largely been excluded.

A subtle but significant shift in Budget practice has emerged in Canberra during Senate Estimates, with Health Department officials confirming the reallocation of $2.7 billion in mostly future-program underspends to other portfolio priorities.

The 2026 Patient's Choice Awards, presented by Patients Australia, will bring together healthcare leaders, clinicians, researchers, patient advocates, carers, policymakers and consumers from across the country for a national celebration of excellence in patient-centred care.

BioPharmaDispatch, also BPDInsights.ai, is publishing an edited version of the information provided to the unidentified participants in the second stage of the Delphi study on the definitions of 'high unmet medical need' and 'high added therapeutic value'. At least this way, those excluded can see its direction.

Recent waves of job losses across the local biopharmaceutical industry probably mask a deeper, systemic decline in Australia’s capacity to participate in the global life‑sciences ecosystem, with worrying implications for national resilience, patient access to innovation, and the country’s attractiveness as an investment destination. Are we at risk of following New Zealand in losing a strategic national capability?

Former Medicines Australia public affairs head, Gail Morgan, has been appointed as the inaugural chief executive officer of the Medicinal Cannabis Council Australia.

Omico has launched a national real-world data initiative built on Australia’s largest prospectively consented precision oncology dataset, comprising more than 20,000 records.

Blood cancers remain a major health burden in Australia. It is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death. Around 20,000 people were diagnosed with blood cancer in 2025, and more than 135,000 Australians now live with blood cancer.

According to the company, in the Phase 3 RASolute 302 trial, daraxonrasib showed a roughly 60 per cent reduction in the risk of death and a doubling of median overall survival compared with standard second-line chemotherapy.

Links sent to participate in round two of the process are uniquely coded, single-use and ring-fenced. Whose input does it reflect? Surely we have a right to know? The fact that this was entirely predictable is still no excuse for secrecy and non-transparency.

Is this the outcome people expected, not least after almost five years? It makes the sudden urgency that so many now demand very odd. Given that the current trajectory means no change for the vast majority of new therapies, why the urgency?

Powerful patient stories stand in contrast to a decision-making framework that explicitly dehumanises their lived experience. The need for 'decency and compassion'. Week one of Senate Estimates, the challenge of saying one thing publicly and something else privately, and a Budget that revealed so much about what is coming.

Alice Tien, Managing Director of Biogen Australia and New Zealand, said, “People living with ALS and those who support them have waited a long time to see meaningful progress against this devastating disease."

The increase, equivalent to roughly a 1 per cent rise in the agency’s baseline funding, means the backlog of medicines awaiting funding will remain almost entirely intact.