Comment

NPS MedicineWise is either a government funded business focussed on delivering a key objective of National Medicines Policy or a third-party organisation providing services to both the government and private sector. Can it really be both?

When it comes to advocacy, success is about getting the basics right - keep it simple and bring some energy, act with integrity, be consistent and have 'rules of engagement', engage openly and without overt self-interest on policy, treat others in a courteous and respectful manner, and be honest.

The involvement of officials from industry and innovation at least offers some limited form of external accountability over the administration of the PBS. Has this ever been more important?

What were the criteria for deciding the needs of some patients should be prioritised over others when it comes quickly progressing major listing recommendations?

The situation for the industry is not far short of dire. It is caught in this trap of 'winners' and 'losers' because it is being forced to fund new listings through agreed savings measures.

PharmaDispatch has chosen not to publish the detail of these individual company reports since early 2017 and maintains this position.

Another day and another worrying revelation about the Medicines Australia strategic agreement.

The research-based sector has invested an enormous amount of its small repository of political capital in its relationship with reappointed health minister Greg Hunt. The investment, highlighted...

With speculation health minister Greg Hunt offered to resign last night, the pharmaceutical sector is facing the very real prospect of a new minister, an unstable government, unresolved policy issues and no money left to fund new listings.

Documents released under freedom of information (FoI) reveal the Department of Health did what appears to this publisher to be a deliberate work-around to avoid its contractual obligations with pharmaceutical companies.

It is hard to imagine officials in the Department of Finance and maybe even the Department of Health ever thought the push for rebate reform might finally provide the evidence they have sought for ten years to prove some are engaged in the systematic monetisation of vial sharing.

Is the opposition to the tracking of individual medicine packages because it might reveal some hospitals and providers are effectively charging more than once for the content of some vials?