The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing has launched a closed and selective consultation on two actions from the Health Technology Assessment Review announced by Minister Butler in September 2025.
One action targets updates to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee Guidelines, with an initial focus on the discount rate and comparator selection sections supported by the Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation (CHERE) at the University of Technology Sydney. The other is research to identify and amend the definition of high unmet clinical need and high added therapeutic value. This work is supported by Adelaide Health Technology Assessment (AHTA).
The targeted selective consultation on these actions was launched via targeted invitations on the same day the Health Department opened public consultation on the draft patient engagement framework.
Participation in the CHERE and AHTA processes is limited to a group selected through an undisclosed stakeholder mapping process.
A departmental spokesperson said "500 individual invitations" had been sent to stakeholders. However, only 85 stakeholders will participate in the AHTA-led study, focusing on high unmet clinical needs and high added therapeutic value (View the participant information sheet here).
"The department applies established consultation methods that protect participant confidentiality," the spokesperson said.
An ethics-approved Delphi process will be used. It is designed to force a consensus through iterative, anonymous questionnaires and controlled feedback.
Medicines Australia confirmed it was not consulted on the plan to progress these proposed changes using the Delphi study process.
The ethics-approved trial protocol is not public, and the departmental spokesperson did not respond to a question about whether it would be released.
AHTA's Professor Tracy Merlin confirmed the organisation's role in the study, which focuses on high unmet clinical need and high added therapeutic value. However, Professor Merlin declined to respond to questions or provide the approved study protocol, while acknowledging that there was no contractual restriction on speaking to the media.
