Dear Mrs Irwin

Thank you for your letter of 11 June 2009 regarding a petition recently submitted to your Committee about the availability of AVASTIN® (bevacizumab) through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) for the treatment of cancer.

I am pleased to inform you that from 1 July 2009, AVASTIN was listed in the Schedule of Pharmaceutical Benefits for the treatment of colorectal cancer (also known as bowel cancer). Initial use of PBS-subsidised AVASTIN will be restricted to treatment, in combination with first-line chemotherapy, of patients with previously untreated metastatic colorectal cancer with a World Health Organization (WHO) performance status of 0 or 1. Ongoing use of PBS-subsidised AVASTIN will be restricted to treatment, in combination with first-line chemotherapy, of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer who have previously been issued with an authority prescription for bevacizumab, who do not have progressive disease and who remain on first-line chemotherapy.

Further information about the PBS listing of AVASTIN is available on my Department’s website at www.health.gov.au/internet/ministers/publishing.nfs/Content/mr-yr09-nr-nr054.htm Details of the restrictions pertaining to the PBS listing of AVASTIN are available at www.pbs.gov.au

I trust that the above information is of use.

from the Minister for Health and Ageing, Ms Roxon