Australia has been subsidising drugs to cure hepatitis C since March 2016. Unlike in many other countries, these are available to everyone with the disease and are much cheaper for our government.
Dan Birman, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
Cyntoia Brown was just 16 years old when she shot and killed a man in 2004. Under Tennessee law, she won’t be eligible for parole until she is 67 years old. Is such a harsh sentence constitutional?
The fund is nothing more than a rebadging exercise in the hope people might think it is a new policy. And it’s being used to airbrush public hospitals out of the Medicare picture.
As the Trump administration settles into office, regulators and lawmakers have big plans for shifting the country’s media landscape, with potentially profound effects on the public.
Australia is spending more than A$500 million a year too much for pharmaceuticals because of a little known loophole that allows drug companies to overcharge the government.
Health policy was an important factor in the election outcome, but one of the most important issues in the health sector – the impact of out-of-pocket costs – was mostly ignored.
If Australia’s new prime minister wishes to lead a successful 21st-century government, he must tackle the rise in chronic disease and use data to constantly improve the system.
Before the last round of negotiations, only a handful of issues remained in the way of concluding the TPP. A potential deal-breaker for Australia was intellectual property protections for biologics.
Most of us would agree that cancer drugs should be listed on the PBS, no matter how dear. But our health system can’t afford all of them. How then are decisions about which drugs to subsidise made?
The off-label use of medicines is not illegal and it doesn’t mean regulators have specifically “disapproved” its use. But there are a number of issues to consider before using a medicine off-label.
A group of American airmen broke US laws and evaded the FBI to support the nascent country of Israel in 1948. We should consider them heroes. Jonathan Pollard – not so much.
Biologics are widely accepted as the most effective way of treating certain diseases. They have become the fastest-growing class of therapeutic compounds, with about 300 now available for human use.
Hope, fear, and desperation, along with the unique characteristics of the cancer drug market, create a “perfect storm” that continues to drive up prices for cancer drugs.
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne