E-DRUG: More on Australian PBAC
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[The Minister responds on the defections. See:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0102/07/national/national7.html
Only three international experts protested??
Maybe E-druggers have a task here?
Copied as fair use. Crossposted from Pharm-Policy with thanks. NN]
Wooldridge blames drug experts for 'dummy spit'
By Mark Metherell
Sydney Morning Herald
February 7, 2001
The Federal Health Minister, Dr Wooldridge, yesterday lashed out at
senior Government advisers on prescription drugs who have resigned in
protest, saying they had "spat the dummy".
Dr Wooldridge dismissed the defections from the Pharmaceutical Benefits
Advisory Committee while defending his appointment to the committee of a
drug industry lobbyist, Mr Pat Clear.
"The fact is that we have a better committee ... a few people did not
get their way," Dr Wooldridge said. "They have spat the dummy and they
are trying to do as much damage as possible. They are of no
consequence."
Two of the members he referred to have international standing on
subsidised drugs. Six existing members of the 12-person PBAC have
declined to be renominated because of claims that Government changes to
the committee's structure are aimed at assuaging the drug industry.
Mr Clear was appointed last week to the PBAC, which decides which drugs
are covered by the $3.5billion-a-year prescription subsidies. Dr
Wooldridge told Parliament it was a Cabinet decision to appoint Mr
Clear. He said there was no crisis and accused Labor when in government
of putting an industry representative on a subsidiary body, the
Pharmaceutical Benefits Pricing Authority.
The Opposition's health spokeswoman, Ms Jenny Macklin, last night
rejected Dr Wooldridge's criticism of the PBAC members, saying three
overseas experts had expressed concern about the assault on the
independence of the committee.
These included the international pharmacologists' union, which advised
the United Nations and World Health Organisation, and pharmacologists
from Sweden and Sri Lanka.
Ms Macklin said Dr Wooldridge was accusing the former chairman of the
PBAC, Professor Don Birkett, of spitting the dummy when it was Professor
Birkett whom the minister had approached last month to stay on.
Professor Birkett, who later pulled out in protest at the appointment of
Mr Clear, said he regretted Dr Wooldridge had resorted to personality
attacks when the issues at stake were so important.
A pharmacologist at Adelaide University, Professor Birkett said the
appointment of an industry representative was an abrogation of the
committee's authority and independence.
He said the argument that Mr Clear was only one of 12 members did not
hold water. His presence would inhibit frank discussion about the
industry. And committee decisions on contentious drugs frequently came
down to a close vote.
Dr Wooldridge is yet to announce the final two appointments to the
committee to fill all the vacancies caused by the rush of departures.
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