Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. How is the Albanese Labor government delivering cost-of-living relief by making medicines cheaper for all Australians, and how are new drug listings on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme helping Australians living with advanced and high-risk cancers?

Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bennelong, who is a very big supporter of a stronger Medicare, particularly the Medicare urgent care clinics at Ryde and at Chatswood servicing his community. He's also a great source of advice on medicines policy because he works so closely with that industry, so much of which is headquartered in his electorate, in Ryde, affectionately known as 'pill hill', and also out at Macquarie Park. One of those companies, Merck, is the sponsor of a blockbuster immunotherapy called Keytruda, which is already listed on the PBS for a number of cancer types.

I was delighted on Sunday to join the member for Boothby and the new South Australian health minister at the Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide to announce a new listing for Keytruda that covers three new cancer types and takes effect tomorrow. It covers locally advanced cervical cancer, it covers renal cell carcinoma, the most common form of kidney cancer, and it also covers locally advanced head and neck cancer. Those are relatively early stage cancers compared to the current listings of Keytruda. Today that treatment costs those patients more than $15,000 for every single infusion; from tomorrow it'll cost just 25 bucks. We think that more than 10,000 patients every year will benefit from that listing.

The member for Boothby and I were joined by three of those patients on Sunday—three terrific Australians. One of them, Anita Modlinski, who's a cervical cancer survivor, said:

… when Dr Sukumaran told me … the cost, my heart sunk. I thought, how could this drug that's going to save lives cost so much … ? So for it to be on the PBS now is just an absolute game changer for women …

Ben Hale, who was there with his daughter Jessica, is a head and neck cancer survivor who's had a recurrence of that cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy now. He said:

… it is just a huge relief to go. I'm not going to be thinking about the financial aspects of it going forward.

And the wonderful Allan Bridges, who's a renal cancer survivor, was also there and he said:

I actually wrote to the Health Minister's office … requesting … that it be added to the PBS …

He told the media:

I don't take any credit for putting it on the PBS—

perhaps he should—

but I'm very pleased … it gives people in my position hope, hope for the future and that's the best thing.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

After 24 questions, Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.