E-drug: Australian PBAC shakeup - more info
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http://www.smh.com.au/news/0012/01/pageone/pageone8.html
Canberra sides with drug giants to curb own watchdog=
By Mark Metherell
Sydney Morning Herald
Multinational drug companies have been implicated in a move by the
Howard Government to axe the most senior members of the committee
responsible for controlling prescription drugs in Australia.
The 12-member Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee yesterday
considered resigning en masse after learning this week of legislation
that would remove at least five of its present members.
Committee members said they believed their impending removal was the
Government's response to pressure from big drug companies to rein in
the committee's influence over the $3.5billion-a-year prescribed drug
market.
The Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Senator Grant Tambling, said
the committee's concerns sounded like "personalities protecting their
patch".
He denied the moves resulted from industry pressure and said they
were part of a plan, which the committee had agreed to, to allow for
greater rotation of members.
The legislation, to go before the Senate on Monday, would allow a
maximum of two four-year terms, and would make at least five present
members - including the committee's chairman, Professor Don Birkett,
and the chairman of its economic subcommittee, Professor David Henry
- ineligible for reappointment.
PBAC members argue that the sudden removal of so many experienced
members would seriously weaken the committee.
Big drug companies have taken on the PBAC this year over its refusal
to recommend subsidies for the male potency drug Viagra and the
heroin addiction antidote Naltrexone.
The United States-based drug company Pfizer has legal action pending
over the PBAC's Viagra decision. The drug costs $70 for four tablets,
but if subsidised under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme would cost
$3.30 a script for pensioners and $20.70 for others.
Three members of the PBAC told the Herald yesterday they were aware
the pharmaceutical industry had been lobbying the Government to
reduce the committee's powers and axe certain members.
Professor Birkett said last night the real issue raised by the
proposed changes was the "continuing influence on the process" of the
pharmaceutical industry.
Professor Henry, a Newcastle University pharmacologist, said
Australia's pharmaceutical benefits system was being copied overseas
because of its success in restraining the soaring cost of drugs, but
even in Australia costs were rising by 10-15 per cent a year.
"The committee has not felt it is receiving real support from this
Government," he said.
A spokesman for Pfizer, Mr Alan Brindell, said yesterday his company
stood by previous statements that the PBAC's denial of access to
benefits for products like Viagra deserved closer scrutiny "as it is
undermining Australians' access to advances in new medical
treatments".
Reprinted under the fair use doctrine
of international copyright law:
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
Melissa Raven, Lecturer, Addiction Studies Coordinator
Department of Public Health, Flinders University
G5 Flats, Flinders Medical Centre
BEDFORD PARK SA 5042 AUSTRALIA
Phone: (08) 8204 5714 Fax: (08) 8204 5693 International 61 8
"Melissa Raven" <melissa.raven@flinders.edu.au>
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