1 July 2019 - The Australian Government will provide affordable access to four new medicines through Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme , helping patients living with debilitating and often life threatening conditions.

The new PBS listings from today include:

• Pemetrexed, a medicine for the treatment of metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, and mesothelioma will also have its authority level reduced to make it easier for doctors to prescribe. 
• Oratane (isotretinoin) will be listed to the PBS to help treat the 21,000 people per year with severe cystic acne, providing doctors with an alternative for patients who require a lower therapeutic dose. 
• Phenelzine will be made available through the PBS for the treatment of patients with depression, when all other anti-depressant therapy has failed.

Read Minister of Health press release

A cautionary note from MAESTrO; these are all old, F2-listed medicines so they are not new medicines but rather new generic brands of PBS listed medicines.

• Pemetrexed disodium heptahydrate- first approved by the US FDA in 2004
• Isotretinoin - first approved by the US FDA in 1982
• Phenelzine sulphate - first approved by the US FDA in 1961