17 December 2013 - The Minister for Health, Peter Dutton, today announced new listings on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) for medicines to treat diabetes and lung cancer.

The PBS listing of the new medicines or combinations of medicines will apply from 1 February 2014, making these therapies considerably cheaper for Australian patients.

For patients with diabetes, a combination dose of aloglitpin with metformin (sold as Nesina Met®) has now been listed. While the drugs were already listed individually, many patients need to use both medicines at once to treat their condition.

“Making this combination dose available through the PBS will save many patients up to $36.90 whenever they get a script filled because they will be able to buy one medicine instead of two,” Mr Dutton said.

“More than 50,000 people are expected to obtain the combined medicine through the PBS over the next five years. With an average of seven packs each over that period, this represents a considerable saving to people living with diabetes.”

Mr Dutton also announced the PBS listing of erlotinib (sold as Tarceva®) for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. The listing provides another treatment option for this type of cancer, following approval in November of PBS listing for gefitinib (sold as Iressa®).

For more details, go to: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/ministers/publishing.nsf/Content/health-mediarel-yr2013-dutton026.htm