The Abbott Government plans to re-establish the Pharmaceutical Industry Working Group (PIWG), just months after announcing its abolition.
Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane confirmed plans to re-establish the group abolished by former Health Minister Peter Dutton at a meeting of health industry representatives in Sydney yesterday.
The Government announced the abolition of PIWG last December, as one of 175 'agencies' to be scrapped.
According to sources, Mr Macfarlane said re-establishing PIWG was an opportunity for he and Health Minister Sussan Ley to engage with the industry at the most senior level.
Mr Macfarlane told the audience he hoped to convene the first meeting of the 'new PIWG' before June.
Industry sources told PharmaDispatch last year that PIWG's abolition had been a long-held ambition of the Department of Health, which had grown tired of industry using the group as a vehicle to focus on its complaints regarding the PBS, rather than wider industry development issues.
In response, both Medicines Australia and the Generic Medicines Industry Association called on the Abbott Government to create a new body to support growth in the local industry.
GMiA CEO Belinda Wood said at the time that industry and health policy "go hand in hand" when it comes to medicines.
"...there is great value in formal policy engagement between the generic medicines industry and government, specifically and simultaneously with both the Minister for Industry and the Minister for Health."
Ms Wood urged the Government to consider creating a "more focussed" PIWG.
Medicines Australia called for the creation on an industry equivalent to the Department of Health's Access to Medicines Working Group.
Shadow Industry Minister Kim Carr recently questioned officials from the Department of Industry over the fate of PIWG, asking whether it was "euthanased" or just "no longer meets".
