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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-05-02 Daily Xml
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Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme

Mr BATTY (Bragg) (15:11): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Can the minister assist my constituent Mrs Sarah Lee, and with your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr BATTY: Mrs Lee has been using the drug Enhertu to fight her deadly metastatic breast cancer. The drug is working but not yet on the PBS. The drug costs Mrs Lee $12,300 per three-weekly cycle. I wrote to you on 2 March querying whether Mrs Lee could be assisted under any state scheme to assist patients with the cost of medicines not yet on the PBS. Two months and tens of thousands of dollars have passed and Mrs Lee is running out of money and time.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:12): Thank you very much to the member for Bragg. I thank him for his question and advocacy on behalf of his constituent. I have responded to the letter. It may well be on the way. I have certainly signed that letter in the last couple of days, but as the member knows this is a federal matter in relation to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. As well as writing back to the member for Bragg, I have also written to the federal health minister, the Hon. Mark Butler, inquiring into the status of this particular drug on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

Clearly, the federal government in its processes in relation to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme needs to go through a proper process of considering the efficacy and cost-effectiveness as well of particular drugs. It has a Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Council, which meets to consider particular drug listings. I understand that this drug has been considered a number of times by that committee but it has not got through and been recommended for listing on the PBS, and I am certainly inquiring with the federal minister to see whether that is going to be subject to further consideration in the future.

I am sure that your constituent is not the only one who might be in that situation of facing a difficult decision in terms of the price of that particular drug. I hope that this receives appropriate consideration by the federal government, and I thank the member for Bragg for raising his concern on behalf of his constituent at what would obviously be a difficult time for her and her family.

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