Health officials are in talks with pharmaceutical firms to get \u201crevolutionary\u201d weight loss drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy on the list of federally-subsidised prescription medicines.<\/p>\n
Access to approved GLP-1 medications is highly restricted in Australia and those who can buy them often fork out thousands of dollars a year \u2013 driving some to look at black market options.<\/p>\n
Health Minister Mark Butler on Monday hailed GLP-1 medications as \u201ca revolutionary class of drugs\u201d that \u201cI certainly want to see them on the (Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme) so that Australians have access to them in an equitable way\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do we get them onto the PBS and make them available to people on an equitable basis is really the question that we are working through right now,\u201d he told Seven, adding that he had received expert advice recommending \u201ca relatively limited listing for weight loss\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo for people with a body mass index \u2026 of 35 or higher and some established cardiovascular disease \u2013 so certainly not a population-wide listing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Listing a medication on the PBS requires the federal government to agree a price with the drugmaker.<\/p>\n
It absorbs a large portion of the medication\u2019s total cost so that Australians who need prescription medicines pay lower prices.<\/p>\n
Mr Butler said his department had been working with the makers of two GLP-1 drugmakers \u201cto try and agree a price that they\u2019re willing to receive and we\u2019re willing to pay on behalf of taxpayers\u201d but that \u201cwe haven\u2019t been able to agree that price yet\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to get there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is too important a class of drugs not to have on the PBS.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve made that clear to the two companies that have these drugs in the market and to my department, we\u2019ve got to get there one way or the other.\u201d <\/p>\n
Doctors and pharmacists have long-called for GLP-1 medications to be listed on the PBS, with Royal Australian College of General Practitioners saying it would help reduce obesity but also help patients \u201cgain health\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Health officials are in talks with pharmaceutical firms to get \u201crevolutionary\u201d weight loss drugs such as Ozempic and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[91060,91057,37463,39152,91061,46450,91035,91055,91054,67842,91031,91029,37834,21187,91056,91049,91034,22,23,7458,21,37617,91052,91047,91053,91058,52431,8672,69218,91059,22131,91028,1849,91043,83100,156,91032,37045,91038,2054,91027,91036,88317,91040,32655,91033,7350,34788,91045,91041,91051,91046,91030,35631,45184,91037,55231,91050,14897,38126,64530,36976,41451,75506,39021,91026,91044,17467,91048,91042,91039],"class_list":["post-68882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-s-total-cost","tag-revolutionary-weight-loss-drugs","tag-37463","tag-a-bid","tag-a-body-mass-index","tag-a-class","tag-a-large-portion","tag-a-medication","tag-a-new-price-battle","tag-a-price","tag-a-relatively-limited-listing","tag-a-revolutionary-class","tag-a-year","tag-access","tag-an-equitable-basis","tag-an-equitable-way","tag-approved-glp-1-medications","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australians","tag-austrlia","tag-behalf","tag-black-market-options","tag-black-market-options-health-minister-mark-butler","tag-cardiovascular-disease","tag-doctors-and-pharmacists","tag-dollars","tag-drugs","tag-expert-advice","tag-federally-subsidised-prescription-medicines","tag-general-practitioners","tag-glp-1-medications","tag-health","tag-health-officials","tag-his-department","tag-labor","tag-lower-prices-mr-butler","tag-monday","tag-my-department","tag-newswire-politics","tag-not-a-population-wide-listing","tag-obesity","tag-one-way","tag-ozempic-and-wegovy","tag-patients","tag-pbs-listings","tag-people","tag-pharmaceutical-benefits-scheme","tag-pharmaceutical-firms","tag-prescription-medicines","tag-price-battle","tag-revolutionary","tag-royal-australian-college","tag-talks","tag-taxpayers","tag-that-price","tag-the-medication","tag-the-drugmaker-it","tag-the-federal-government","tag-the-list","tag-the-makers","tag-the-market","tag-the-other","tag-the-pbs","tag-the-question","tag-the-two-companies","tag-these-drugs","tag-thousands","tag-two-glp-1-drugmakers","tag-weight-loss","tag-weight-loss-drugs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}