Australian patients have missed out on 75 per cent of the breakthrough new medicines released in the last five years, new industry analysis shows.

And we rank third last in the developed world, just ahead of Portugal and New Zealand, for subsidising new drugs, some of them life saving.

Pharmaceutical lobby group Medicines Australia will today release a report detailing poor access to medicines — because of government assessment delays — as it calls for the drug subsidy system to be overhauled.

Their report comes as the expert government body in charge of approving those subsidies hits back at claims of slow processing in a new submission to a Senate inquiry.

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee blames drug companies for the delay claiming they don’t submit medicines for subsidy approval in Australia until nine months after they ask for a subsidy in the US.

For more details, go to: http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/the-31-breakthrough-medicines-australians-cant-get-according-to-medicines-australia-report/story-fneuz9ev-1227266967202