The pricing of statins and implications for Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme expenditure

To the Editor: Following two articles in the Journal,1,2 I wish to provide an update on the pricing of statins in Australia and the implications for Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) expenditure. I was prompted to do so by a recent review by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC), which was instigated by the Senate when it passed legislation enabling the current pharmaceutical pricing arrangements.3 The purpose of the review was to determine if there was new evidence on whether rosuvastatin and atorvastatin should be included in the existing statins therapeutic group.