E-drug: Australian PBS - The Reality
---------------------------------------------
It appears I was premature and optimistic in my interpretation of the
amendments to the National Health Act in the Australian Senate Thursday
evening. The Bill that passed allows the Minister to dissolve the PBAC and
he has decided to do so on Dec 31st. Certain members will be invited to
re-nominate at the Minister's 'pleasure'. That will definitely not include
those who were seen to be 'hostile' to the interests of the big
Pharma. The amendments to the Act did not make this clear, but the legal
interpretation does. It appears we were all fooled, including the
opposition parties. We can only hope that the procedures that have been
put in place, and the strong evidentiary basis of the PBAC's
decision-making, protect decisions from the industry's influence.
Hopefully the publicity we have given to this sad episode, and
the lobbying which has taken place (and should continue - please) will help
to immunise the process against this affliction in future.
However the real question is whether good people will serve on a
committee that has been treated with such contempt by a senior
government minister.
David Henry
Professor of Clinical Pharmacology
Head, School of Population Health Sciences
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
The University of Newcastle
New South Wales
Australia
Phone +61 249 211856
Fax +61 249 602088
David Henry <mddah@mail.newcastle.edu.au>
--
Send mail for the `E-Drug' conference to `e-drug@usa.healthnet.org'.
Mail administrative requests to `majordomo@usa.healthnet.org'.
For additional assistance, send mail to: `owner-e-drug@usa.healthnet.org'.