Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

To secure an after-hours GP clinic at Nepean Hospital funded by the federal government. The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is one of the most important components of Australia’s health system. I should point out to the benefit of members that, to a considerable extent, improvements in life expectancy from 70 years at birth 45 years ago to over 80 years at birth today are due to effective drugs available to all Australians under the PBS. To protect taxpayers as well as to benefit patients, drugs only go on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme if they can satisfy rigorous cost-effectiveness tests administered by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee.

I know many Australians were delighted when on 1 October a number of new and innovative drugs were listed on the PBS. First of all, Herceptin has been listed for HER2 positive women with early stage breast cancer, and that was listed after an expedited approval process. It is estimated that this will boost breast cancer survival rates, currently 85 per cent for the affected patient group, to about 90 per cent. Secondly, the drugs Lantus and Levemir have been listed for patients with diabetes, and these certainly should help them to better manage their condition. Finally, people with cardiac risk factors will be able to access statins on the PBS regardless of their cholesterol level. All up, these very significant changes will benefit more than 360,000 Australians and they will cost more than $860 million over the forward estimates period.

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