Posted by Michael Wonder on 24 Jul 2017
Government moves to legislate to increase generic and biosimilar medicine uptake and cut medicine prices
24 July 2017 - Australia has long lagged behind the USA and UK in its use of generic pharmaceuticals – only around 58% of medicines dispensed in Australia are the generic versus up to 80% in the USA and UK.
Announcements by the Australia Government in May 2017 herald an increase in generic and biosimilar usage by changing the way that doctors prescribe medications, and also cut the cost of medicines in Australia by changing some of the pricing mechanics of the PBS.
The planned changes to prescribing will see modifications made to the doctor's prescribing software so that a generic medicine will be prescribed by default (the doctor would have to actively select to prescribe the brand).
