MPA website to foster clarity on the PBS
Reference:
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The Medicines Partnership of Australia has launched a new website aimed at giving
the public, government and industry a clearer picture of the Pharmaceutical Benefits
Scheme.
The new website can be viewed at: http://medicinespartnership.com.au/
The Medicines Partnership of Australia is: The Pharmacy Guild of Australia,
Medicines Australia, the Generic Medicines Industry Association, the Australian
Self-Medication Industry, the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia and the National
Pharmaceutical Services Association.
These organisations have a common interest in ensuring the sustainability of the
Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) which they regard as the best subsidized
medicines scheme in the world. The PBS has served all Australians extremely well
since its introduction more than 60 years ago.
To ensure sustainability, we need to have clear agreed measures of volume and
price growth in the PBS, so that government, industry and other stakeholders can
make meaningful comparisons and draw reliable projections of this important public
sector expenditure item.
To this end, the Medicines Partnership of Australia publishes a quarterly PBS
Scorecard, tracking changes and trends in PBS volumes and aggregate costs.
This new website will become the principal location for all interested parties to track
these scorecards, as well as other information about the PBS.
The most recent scorecard, issued last month, showed no growth in real terms,
confirming the ongoing viability of the PBS.
Growth in Federal Government expenditure on the PBS in the 12 months to 31
March 2012 was just 0.8%. After adjusting for inflation, this represented a decline
of 0.8% in real terms. This was well below the Government’s own target of two per
cent growth in real terms. This reinforces the industry’s long-held position that the
PBS is well under control.
15 June 2012
Media inquiries: Greg Turnbull 0412 910 261