{"id":691759,"date":"2026-01-12T20:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T20:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/691759\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T20:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T20:06:15","slug":"weight-loss-drug-wegovy-to-be-listed-on-pbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/691759\/","title":{"rendered":"Weight loss drug Wegovy to be listed on PBS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wegovy will be heavily subsidised for Australians with severe obesity, who have also experienced a cardiovascular event, like a heart attack or stroke.<\/p>\n

The glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) class drug that is prescription-only and used in clinical care for chronic weight management in eligible patients.<\/p>\n

It is set to be listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), meaning it will be subject to a newly introduced maximum price cap for all drugs on the subsidy scheme.<\/p>\n

Both Ozempic and Wegovy are manufactured by pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk.<\/p>\n

As of January 1, the maximum price of a PBS prescription has been price-capped at $25, and $7.70 for pensioners and concession card holders.<\/p>\n

Currently, maintenance doses of the treatment cost between $200-$400 per month.<\/p>\n

\"Labor<\/p>\n

Labor will negotiate with manufacturer Novo Nordisk to list the drug on the PBS.<\/p>\n

The drug\u2019s PBS proposed listing comes after the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) recommended its addition in December.<\/p>\n

It advised patients with a particular level of obesity, a BMI of 32-35 or above, who had experienced a cardiovascular event, like a heart attack, stroke, or symptomatic peripheral arterial disease, be eligible for the concession.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Health Minister Mark Butler confirmed the federal government would enter negotiations with manufacturer Novo Nordisk, saying the drug\u2019s exclusion from the PBS listing was not just a health issue, but an equity one too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a pretty extraordinary class of drugs \u2026 not just for weight loss, but a range of other benefits as well,\u201d he told reporters at a press conference.<\/p>\n

\"NATIONAL<\/p>\n

Health Minister Mark Butler described GLP-1s as \u201cextraordinary\u201d. Picture: NewsWire\/Tertius Pickard<\/p>\n

\u201cI think governments across the world, including ours, are going through a process of working out how we can make sure that patients, in an equitable way, get access to those benefits.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, more than 400,000 Australians are paying market prices for one of the GLP-1s, and that is as much as $4,000 or $5,000 a year, which is obviously beyond the means of many Australians.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he confirmed Labor was committed to listing the drug on the subsidy scheme, he conceded its addition will likely hit taxpayers with a hefty bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery recommendation from the PBAC that we have received has been listed by this government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a further process, though, after the recommendation is received, and that\u2019s a process to get the right price.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is going to be a very big bill for taxpayers, so it\u2019s incumbent on us as the government to negotiate a good price, from the perspective of taxpayers on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

On December 1, Wegovy and Ozempic were subject to a warning from Australia\u2019s medicine regulator advising the drugs could lead to suicidal ideation, the same day GLP-1 class drugs were endorsed by the World Health Organisation as a treatment for obesity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wegovy will be heavily subsidised for Australians with severe obesity, who have also experienced a cardiovascular event, like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":691760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4315],"tags":[155703,208935,196875,105,11547,13595,4326,5834,208934,135431,7430,208936,16,15,1530],"class_list":{"0":"post-691759","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-australians","9":"tag-cardiovascular-event","10":"tag-eligible-patients","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-heart-attack","13":"tag-mark-butler","14":"tag-medication","15":"tag-novo-nordisk","16":"tag-pharmaceutical-benefits-advisory-committee","17":"tag-pharmaceutical-benefits-scheme","18":"tag-physical-activity","19":"tag-subsidy-scheme","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom","22":"tag-weight-management"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115883932913648375","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}