30 October 2020 - The Public Summary Documents (positive recommendations and subsequent decisions not to recommend) from the July 2020 PBAC meeting are now available.

Some interesting insights from the Public Summary Documents:

• The PBAC has finally recommended the PBS listing of apremilast for patients with psoriasis.  The first submission from new sponsor Amgen; the previous five submissions from Celgene were either rejected or deferred. The recommendation is for use by patients with severe disease; previous considerations were for patients with moderate to severe disease.
• The PBAC has recommended the PBS listing of adalimumab (Hadlima) for certain patients with ulcerative colitis. This was not noted in the published agenda and the outcomes (short minutes).
• The PBAC has recommended the PBS listing of cationic, preservative free ophthalmic emulsion (Cationorm) treatment of patients with severe dry eye syndrome who are sensitive to preservatives in multi-dose eye drops on a cost-minimisation basis compared with the lowest cost PBS-listed preservative-free, multi-dose eye drops. It appears as though the sponsor of Cationorm (Seqiris) actually requested a listing on this basis.
• The PBAC recommended the listing of guselkumab 100 mg/mL solution in pre-filled pens for the treatment of patients with severe chronic plaque psoriasis, under the same arrangements as the currently listed guselkumab 100 mg/mL solution in pre-filled syringes. The PBAC considered that guselkumab 100 mg/mL solution in pre-filled pens should be cost minimised to the lowest cost biological agent available for patients with severe chronic plaque psoriasis, noting that any of the current PBS listed bDMARDs for patients with severe plaque psoriasis could be an alternative therapy to guselkumab.  This is an astonishing outcome given the recent PBAC recommendations for benralizumab and mepolizumab.
  

Additional insights will be published in a future issue of MAESTrO Daily. 

Read PBAC Public Summary Documents