Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme

Price regulation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme + Pharm. Benefits Advisory Committee, Pharmaceutical Benefits Pricing Authority Min. of Finance Pharm. Serv. Div. Govt. y MoHWS Min. of Trade + Min. of Health + Central Pharmacy V Min. of Industry and Commerce + DDC y... 

For a new medicine to obtain public subsidy for patients in the community, the sponsor must successfully apply for the product to be included in the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). Data are required on relative cost and effectiveness, and the scrutiny of this information according to prescribed criteria is described as the fourth hurdle, that is, in addition to quality, safety and efficacy requirements that medicines must overcome, to be readily available to the Australian public. 

Escalation of costs led to multiple measures to limit the increase in PBS expenditure, including the introduction of an authority system for new drugs from 1988. Co-payments were eventually also introduced for concessional patients -for disadvantaged patients in 1989 and for pensioners in 1990. Details of the early history of the PBS and the myriad of subsequent changes can be found in A History of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme 1947-1992. ... 

Australia is evident from information published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). Expenditure on benefit-paid items under the PBS is the largest single component of total expenditure on pharmaceuticals. In 2001-2 the cost to government under the PBS, not including expenditure under the Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (RPBS) was AUD 4181 million. This increased to an estimated AUD 4572 million in 2002-3 with the share of total cost of the PBS met by the Commonwealth being 84.2%. 

Sloan C. A History of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme 1947-1992, Canberra AGPS 1995. 

Henry, D. A., S. Hill, and A. Harris. 2005. Prescription Drug Prices and Value for Money. The Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. JAMA 294 (20) 2630-2632. 

Sainsbury, P. 2004. Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement and the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Yale Journal of Health Policy Law Ethics 4 387-99. 

Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee Pharmaceutical Benefits Branch (of DHAC) Pharmaceutical Benefits Pricing Authority Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme Product Information (for health professionals) Pharmaceutical Subcommittee (of ADEC)... 

For new chemical entities listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme (PBS), the full disclosure PI must accompany all promotional material, with the exception of primary advertisements, for at least 12 months from the initial PBS listing date. 

Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (2002 Health Access and Financing, Australian Department of Health and Ageing Canberra, Australia, www.health.gov.au/pbs/ aboutus.htm (accessed July 2002). 

Hall, R. Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme] MediScene Newsletter, Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care CanbeiTa, Australia, 2000 L5, Issue 14. 

NHLBI —National Heart, Lung and Blood PBS —Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme... 

S. Hill, A.S. Mitchell and D.A. Henry, Problems with the interpretation of pharmacoeconomic analyses A review of submissions to the Australian pharmaceutical benefits scheme, JAMA 283 (2000), 2116-2121. 

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