Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to speak on the National Health Amendment (Pharmaceutical Benefits) Bill 2015, which implements a number of the measures from the Sixth Community Pharmacy Agreement. I think it is fair to say that it was a very robust negotiation between the Commonwealth government and a number of stakeholders, including the Pharmacy Guild of Australia and a number of others such as Consumer Health Forum, Medicines Australia and the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia.

This is the sixth one; the first one was in 1990. They generally go for five years and they give some certainty to pharmacists and some certainty to the Commonwealth taxpayer. It is also true to say that the steps that we took 10 years ago mean that the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is on a much more sustainable track. Having said that, the public accounts committee has commenced an inquiry into the performance audit report on the Fifth Community Pharmacy Agreement. We have put out a media release and we are seeking submissions on that to look at issues raised from that performance audit into the Fifth Community Pharmacy Agreement.

I want to commend the Minister for Health on coming up with this package of reforms, which really did take months and months. It is a very complex negotiation involving the entire pharmaceutical supply chain, including consumers, pharmacists, medicines manufacturers, wholesalers and doctors.

There is a number of new changes in the community pharmacy agreement—not only will the price of medicines be discounted for patients and access to new medicines improved but there will also be greater certainty for medicines manufacturers over this five-year agreement and a $2.8 billion investment supporting pharmacy and primary care.

On a related issue, the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia were particularly interested to see measures within the agreement which related to better education and better training of the profession. They were happy to see that in the final agreement. All the stakeholders recognise the need to deliver a more sustainable PBS to ensure that the government can continue to list new medicines, and the package does have total efficiencies of $6.6 billion over five years across the entire pharmaceutical supply chain.

One of the things that happened in the previous government was that we had the extraordinary situation where, previously, drugs would be listed and they had to go through the advisory committee, have a price set and then go to cabinet if they were over a certain threshold. I well remember the industry minister, Kim Carr, turning up to a Medicines Australia dinner and saying that the government, having already established that robust process, had decided that they would stop listing new drugs until there was a budget in surplus. We know what happened: there never was a budget in surplus. Luckily that decision did not stand, like so many others.

I want to talk a little bit about some of the medicines which have been listed since the election, which include Mekinist, for melanoma. That would be $131,000 per patient if it were not subsidised through the PBS. Kalydeco, for cystic fibrosis, would be $300,000 per patient if it were not subsidised through the PBS. Herceptin, for breast cancer, would be $82,000 per patient if it were not subsidised through the PBS. I could go on. There is a whole list here. We are seeing an average of about 30 new and amended drug listings for patients each month, compared to an average of just eight under the previous government.

One drug which I hope will be listed soon as Keytruda. Having sat on the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health inquiry into skin cancer, I am well aware of the potential that the newer immunotherapy drugs offer. This is an anti-PD-1—anti-phosphodiesterase-1—immunotherapy agent also known as pembrolizumab. It has really crossed all the hurdles, so hopefully that will be listed soon. Having had family members who have died from advanced melanoma, I know that, with this disease, months really do count.

I do not want to speak for long on this. This is an $18.9 billion agreement. There are a number of efficiencies here. There is also an investment which will help with infrastructure. I welcome this and welcome the way that the minister was able to conclude this negotiation with the Pharmacy Guild.

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