Time for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee to set its own agenda

Lipworth, Wendy L; Kerridge, Ian; Day, Richard O

doi:10.5694/mja12.10152

Topics

Drug subsidy recommendations should be informed by active assessment of current evidence and emerging treatments

Decisions about which medicines should be subsidised by the Australian Government on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) are based on recommendations made by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) — an independent statutory body appointed by the government.1

1 Australian Institute of Health Innovation, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW.
2 Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW.
3 Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, NSW.

Correspondence: w.lipworth@unsw.edu.au

Competing interests:

No relevant disclosures.

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