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Agenda

 

 

 
Day One: Thursday 12th April 2012
| Day One | Day Two |
8.30
Registration and networking
9.00
Opening remarks from the Chair
THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE AND THE IMPACT OF REFORM
9.10
PBS reform and the impact on consumers
  • Consumer perspective on recent government PBS reforms
  • Maintaining the integrity of the PBS
  • The need for productive dialogue between government and consumers
  • What reforms to the PBS could assist consumers in the future?
  • Does the current PBS support consumers?
  • How can consumers be more engaged in decision making around the PBS?
Carol Bennett, Chief Executive Officer, Consumers Health Forum
10.00
Medicare is tired, copays are killing us and the PBS can accelerate efficiency gains in healthcare
  • Latest data on efficiency losses in healthcare: The 2011 Commonwealth fund survey
  • Means-testing of co-payments is defensible: the social costs of rationing
  • Slowing the rising costs of comorbidity: why PBS and MBS data linkages are essential
  • Polypharmacy and hospital readmissions: what the PCEHR should be targeting
  • Evidence in an era of personalised medicine: revisiting the PBAC economic appraisal guidelines
Dr. Paul Gross, Director, Institute of Health Economics and Technology Assessment (IHETA)
10.35
Morning tea
THE PBS AND THE LAW
11.00
IP law reform and healthcare
  • The Intellectual Property Laws Amendment (Raising the Bar) Bill 2011 proposes many changes which may have either a direct or indirect impact on healthcare including:
    - new experimental use exemption;
    - new regulatory exemption; and
    - new support requirements.
  • The Advisory Council on Intellectual Property (ACIP) report looked at reforming the patent system to include a ‘morality exclusion’ and definition of patentable subject matter in clear and contemporary language. How would such amendments impact on the accessibility and/or affordability of healthcare in Australia?
Dr Mathew Lucas, Partner and Patent Attorney, Davies Collison Cave
11.40
Other legal issues
  • Interaction between the MOU and legislation
  • Challenging PBS outcomes
  • Improving the regulation of new medicines and devices
Greg Williams, Partner, Litigation and Dispute Resolution, Clayton Utz
CURRENT ISSUES IN THE INDUSTRY
12.20
US free trade: The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement
  • The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, which involves Australia, the US, New Zealand, Chile, Singapore, Brunei, Peru, Vietnam and Malaysia is being hailed as a “21st century” agreement that will cement Australia’s place in the global economy and strengthen its position in the region
  • US phramaceutical companies have lobbied the US government to propose expansion of their patent rights on medicines, delaying the marketing of generic drugs and disadvantaging consumers
  • The pharmaceutical companies are also lobbying for elimination of Australian safeguards against patent abuse
  • US proposals aim to restrict the ability of governments to regulate the price of medicines through schemes like the PBS, by removing references to affordability of medicines, giving pharmaceutical companies more rights to challenge government pricing decisions, and allowing direct advertising of medicines by drug companies to consumers
Dr Patricia Ranald, Convenor, Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network and Research Associate, University of Sydney
1.00
Lunch
2.00
PANEL DISCUSSION
Conflicts of interest and pharma marketing
  • Should the payments made to health professionals by pharmaceutical or other companies be made transparent to the consumer?
  • What arrangements are in place to ensure that the consumer provides informed consent when enrolling in patient support programs?
  • Recently there were controversies regarding the payment of Pharmacists from drug companies to sign patients up to a “support program”. The patient then receives information directly from the company regarding some of the drugs it markets
  • Legislation prohibits the marketing to patients of prescription medicines subsidised under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS)
  • What are the ethical implications of such schemes?
  • What has the public perception of these endorsements been?
Kos Sclavos, President, Pharmacy Guild of Australia
Warwick Plunkett, Immediate Past President, Pharmaceutical Society of Australia
Dr Brendan Shaw, Chief Executive, Medicines Australia
Carol Bennett, Chief Executive Officer, Consumers Health Forum
3.00
Afternoon tea
3.30
PBS deferrals
  • On December 1, 2011, the PBS deferrals for drugs held back by Cabinet will be wrapped up, almost exactly nine months from the day it began
  • How should deferrals be managed in the future?
Dr Brendan Shaw, Chief Executive, Medicines Australia
4.10
PBS and Public hospitals
  • The implementation process
  • Workplace culture changes
  • The impact of deferrals - pressure is placed on medical staff in public hospitals to have deferred medicines funded by the hospital
  • Equity of access and continuity of care for patients
  • Changes to chemotherapy claiming
  • Addressing the upcoming transition to PBS Online for HSD claims
Andrew Jagels, Acting Director, Medication Services Operational Policy and Support, Medication Services Queensland, Queensland Health
4.50
Closing remarks from the Chair
5.00
Networking drinks
 
Day Two: Friday 13th April 2012
| Day One | Day Two |
8.30
Morning coffee
9.00
Opening remarks from the Chair
BIOLOGICALS, BIOSIMILARS AND GENERIC MEDICINES
9.10
Post the 2010 PBS Reforms – is there a future for the generic medicines sector?
  • On 1 April 2012 the generic medicines sector saw an average 23% price reduction of its product portfolio – how does the generic medicines sector survive after this?
  • The cement is not yet dry from the 2010 reforms and government has already announced the next round of PBS reform discussions – what is the position of the generic medicines sector?
  • The government has called for further savings from the PBS – can the PBS deliver further savings for government
Kate Lynch, Chief Executive Officer, Generic Medicines industry Association (GMiA)
CURRENT ISSUES IN THE INDUSTRY
9.50
Patient contributions for PBS medicines – have we got the right balance between patient and public cost?
  • To keep PBS costs affordable for the community, successive Governments have increased the share of medicines costs borne by patients
  • Australian patients’ out-of-pocket medicines costs have tripled since the early 1990’s (after adjusting for inflation). Out-of-pocket expenditure by Australians is now in the moderate-high range by international standards, and ranks 4th highest of 14 OECD countries with universal pharmaceutical subsidies
  • Research suggests that recent policies to increase patient contributions have made PBS medicines unaffordable for some patients
  • The patients most vulnerable to these cost increases are those with low incomes and chronic conditions, as they spent a larger proportion of their income on medicines
  • We may now be at the upper limit of what Australian patients can afford to pay for medicines
Dr Anna Kemp, Assistant Professor, School of Population Health,
The University of Western Australia, and Visiting Research Fellow, Illawarra
Health and Medical Research Institute, University of Wollongong
10.30
Morning tea
11.00
PATIENTS NEED TO BE PROTECTED AS GENERICS COMPANIES COMPETE FOR MARKET SHARE – THE ROLE OF THE CSO
  • Why Australians can count on their pharmacist to supply the PBS medicines they need.
  • How generics competition is putting access to PBS medicines at risk
  • What needs to be done to ensure that all patients can access the PBS medicine they need within 24 hours
Pattie Beerens, Executive Director, National Pharmaceutical Services Association
INNOVATION AND PBS POLICY
11.40
The importance of the PBS for stimulating medical research and development
  • The potential long term impact of PBS deferrals on the health and medical research and development sectors could be exponential
  • Australian research discoveries leading to new medicines, cannot progress from ‘bench to bedside’ without the support of the pharmaceutical industry
  • Listing on the PBS is the last link in a chain that takes research from the bench top to the consumer, ultimately improving health outcomes
  • If pharmaceutical companies cannot list their medicines on the PBS it could act as a disincentive for the long term investment in medical research and development. This could directly impact upon the future of research discoveries and the development of new medicines and is out of step with public attitudes
Elizabeth Foley, Chief Executive Officer, Research Australia
12.20
Lunch
THE FUTURE OF THE PBS – CONSIDERING SOME ALTERNATIVES
1.30
Establishing a PharmCare Agency
  • By 2015, the time for a further 5-year agreement between the Government and “community pharmacy” the cost is likely to be in excess of $10 billion
  • The share of this going to pharmacists for dispensing and providing counselling to the health consumer will be $1.3 billion through the “dispensing fee” and a further $1.2 billion through the mark up on the cost of goods
  • Accountability must be a major factor in any agreement between service providers and funder and in this the Pharmacy Agreement is sadly lacking
  • Discussions towards a 6th Community Pharmacy Agreement must centre on the contract between the Government and pharmacies providing PBS services and the specifications of the service expected by health consumers
  • Consideration needs to be given to a PharmCare Agency which would deliver payments to “Approved Pharmacies” and monitor the issuing of approvals and the terms and conditions surrounding such approvals
  • This could mean a large reduction in approved agencies at the expense of retail pharmacy outlets in which case compensation needs to be considered
  • Pharmacists must decide whether they are health professionals and a part of primary health care or retail entrepreneurs. It will be possible to be both but NOT in the same premises
Rollo Manning, Pharmacy and Public Relations Consultant, RWM Consultancy
2.10
Employer or self-funded Health Savings Accounts (HSA)
  • Health spending has already risen to almost 10% of GDP, and because of the rapid growth of the health-care intensive 65-plus demographic
  • The recent deferral of PBS subsidises indicate that the government is struggling to cope with the added expenses of looking after an ageing population - hospital budgets are strained and surgery waiting times increasing
  • A possible solution rests in a proposed a new scheme to work in tandem with Medicare and private health insurance
  • Under this recommendation, Australians would set aside funds for healthcare in a similar way to how they build superannuation. The federal government would make co-contributions to the health accounts of low-income workers and the public hospital system would remain free only for delivery of emergency or essential health services
Lynne Pezzullo, Director, Lead Partner, Health Economics and Social Policy, Deloitte Access Economics
2.50
Afternoon tea
3.20
Patent expiry of major therapies and the potential impact on the PBS: Sometimes less is more!
  • This is a time when many widely prescribed pharmaceuticals are coming off patent
  • How will this impact on prices in Australia and overseas?
  • What influence should this have on decisions of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC)?
Professor Philip Clarke, School of Population Health, University of Melbourne
4.00
Securing Australia’s medical supply
  • The complexities of global trade and manufacturing result in significant vulnerabilities to the supply of medicines to Australia
  • Medication shortages are an escalating international problem
  • The impact on healthcare provision and the economic costs of these shortages is significantly under-recognised in Australia
  • Australia needs to develop a list of essential medicines and legislate to protect the supply of these critical life-saving drugs
Dr Simon Quilty, Advanced Trainee, Royal Australian College of Physicians
4.40
Closing remarks from the Chair
4.50
End of conference

 

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