Australian PBS must be more transparent: govt

There needs to be more transparency in the way medicines are listed onAustralia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, federal Health Minister Michael Wooldridge has told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

While commercial secrets need to be protected, there still could be more accountability, he told the ABC, adding that while drugmakers oppose the idea of more accountability on grounds of confidentiality, the government is coming round, after further thought, to the view that more transparency would be a good idea.

Dr Wooldridge's comments come in the wake of controversy over PBS overspending of about 22%, or A$774 million ($402.7 million), which has been largely attributed to two newly-covered drugs, Pharmacia's COX-2 inhibitor Celebrex (celecoxib) and GlaxoSmithKline's smoking cessation drug Zyban (bupropion). The Federal Department of Health and Aged Care told the Senate Estimates Committee that while it had budgeted A$40 million for Celebrex, it had spent A$140 million on subsidies for it so far this year. The expected subsidy for Zyban had been A$10 million but this had risen to A$40 million in just three months, says the report, noting that the Committee had found the drug had been prescribed to 165,000 Australians in that period.