Posted by Michael Wonder on 30 Nov 2016
Patients gain subsidised access to expensive new medicines
1 December 2016 - Australians from 1 December will pay no more than $38.30 for a medicine to treat thyroid cancer that would cost a patient $117,000 without subsidised access through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
The medicine - lenvatinib mesylate (Lenvima) - is used in the treatment of radioactive iodine refractory differentiated thyroid cancer (RAI-R DTC) and works by blocking certain proteins that would otherwise encourage cancer cell growth.
The Minister for Health and Aged Care: “The Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee agreed that there was a clinical need for an effective treatment for symptomatic, rapidly progressing patients with RAI-R DTC.
