Quarter of New Global Medicines Subsidized in Australia Over Past Decade

Only a quarter of new medicines launched globally in the last decade have been subsidized under Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, with Medicines Australia warning that the local market is no longer commercially attractive or viable for pharmaceutical companies.

The group said Australia's low willingness to pay for innovative medicines has weakened incentives for global firms to launch new therapies locally. Investment in innovative medicines has fallen from 6.2 per cent to 4.1 per cent of the health budget since 2015-16, according to the group's analysis.

Eighteen key innovative treatments for cancer, mental illness, cardiology, immunology, rare diseases and infectious disease are not available under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. The likelihood that a new medicine is reimbursed in Australia within two years of US approval has dropped from 20 per cent to 10 per cent since 2015-16.

A McKell Institute survey this year found 43 per cent of Australians had been prescribed a medicine not on the PBS and 29 per cent had paid for a non-listed medicine in the last three years.

Tina Powney of Shepparton, Victoria, has lived with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension for 26 years. Her current treatment requires a continuous IV infusion connected to a catheter on her heart and controlled by a pump worn 24 hours a day. She has driven to Melbourne several times in the past six months for line replacements.

Sotatercept, approved in the US and European Union in 2024, requires an injection every three weeks but is not on the PBS and carries an out-of-pocket cost of about $16,000.