John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

If there is a hero in 2021, it is medicine. If we can open one day, it will be thanks to vaccines. Those who, unfortunately, get COVID have a better chance of survival than last year thanks to medical breakthroughs in treatments. Our pharma companies are working overtime to get us back to normal. At the same time, medicines are still saving us from the thousands of other conditions that we have had for centuries. In this context, today in the Great Hall, PharmAus is taking place, Medicines Australia's annual day on the hill. I am, of course, biased. 'Pill Hill' is in my electorate and most pharma companies reside in Bennelong. It is one of the biggest employers locally and biggest exporters. We can always be thankful for medicines adding years and quality of life to millions of Australians, and this is a great day to remember that.

I would also like to touch on a more specific medicine. Today is XLH Awareness Day. Earlier I was happy to hold an event to recognise this with my co-chair in the Friends of Medicine, the member for Macarthur. XLH is a genetic disorder leading to bow legs, rickets, chronic pain and other conditions. We're making huge gains in the area of genetic medicines and I hope we can soon help the thousands of patients who need medicines to treat this debilitating condition.

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