Budget confirms what we already knew and what we had guessed. What a surprise

There are enough measures and signals in this week's Budget to suggest medicines, vaccines and other technologies were discussed extensively in the process leading up to Tuesday's announcement. It might also help explain Health Minister Mark Butler's annoyance at one organisation's response. A Government response to a parliamentary inquiry triggered another odd response from stakeholder groups.

Measures could include modest additional funding for the Health Department to prepare to implement new processes or provide support. It might not. 

Gordon Naylor, who stepped into the interim chief executive role in February, has completed a 90-day review and set out a plan to accelerate the company’s transformation.

Dr Ross Murdoch joins the board as an independent non-executive director, bringing more than 30 years of global pharmaceutical and biotechnology experience, as well as direct involvement in neurology and neurodegenerative disease programs.

Presenting the Budget forecast as evidence of falling pharmaceutical spending misrepresents how the forecasts are constructed and undermines the credibility of those who make that claim.

The minister cannot simply launch a negotiation that might commit the Commonwealth to certain things, any more than he can unilaterally choose to implement the HTA Review. The Cabinet needs to authorise it.

One week to go until the annual BPDInsights meeting, and this year’s program opens on a powerful human note with two patients sharing lived experiences of navigating Australia’s health system.

On 1 July 2026, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme Community Service Obligation will undergo what might be the most profound change since its creation in 2006.

In this week's episode, the focus is on the latest example of no progress on reform, the mindset and intransigence it reveals, the repeated pattern, and the early evidence that it would always end this way. Can it be an opportunity? Next week's Budget is upon us, and the discussion focuses on what to look for, that just because it is not in there, does not mean it is not in there, and why gaining any cut-through will be a real challenge.

Officials will use participation as evidence that the process was inclusive and broadly supported. That claim provides procedural cover for inaction, allowing officials to present incremental adjustments as stakeholder-supported reform. The Delphi studies will be weaponised as a durable rhetorical shield against renewed scrutiny. There are options.

Victoria has become the latest Australian jurisdiction to fund BEXSERO, the meningococcal B vaccine produced by GSK, joining South Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory in offering state-supported access while a national roll‑out remains off the table.

Lilly Australia is celebrating 150 years of the company's pivotal contribution to developing medicines by partnering with Vivid Sydney to bring ideas about the future of healthcare to the festival program.

Announced in 2021 and now running into 2027, the review has produced 9 research papers to date, including 6 by the two organisations leading the current Delphi studies. Is the review being restarted as an internal government process?

The Australian company has been chosen to feature in 'Monarchy and Democracy: A History of Leadership', published by the History of Parliament in partnership with St James’s House, to mark a century of royal and parliamentary life.

Scientists at QIMR Berghofer have unveiled an artificial intelligence screening tool that uses advanced spatial biology analysis to help pathologists detect hidden genetic markers of cancer in standard patient tissue samples.

The company has opened applications for the 2026 Moderna Australia Fellowship, a program that will fund and mentor early-career Australian scientists for two years as they pursue mRNA research and innovation.

They are anonymous with no passwords or barriers to participation, and given the significance of the process to Australia's public health system, this publication believes a closed, targeted process involving a select group of stakeholders is entirely inappropriate. Here are the links.

International comparisons might matter, but only if we employ them consistently. Why limit international comparisons, and why are officials redoing so much of what was already done by the formal review?

A Johnson & Johnson CAR-T therapy is now funded in Australia, almost exactly three years to the day after Health Minister Mark Butler acknowledged in response to questions about its availability that the country's use of health technology assessment is 'clunky' and responsible for preventable deaths.

La Trobe has responded by creating the Research and Engagement for Antimicrobial Resistance and Community Health initiative, known as REACH, to develop new ways to prevent and treat pathogenic bacteria, fungi, and viruses.

"We are seeking greater transparency of the protocol itself and the stakeholders that have been invited to participate, as there are inherent biases in an anonymous Delphi protocol that may undermine the intent of the original HTA Review recommendations," said the Medicines Australia chief executive.