Memorandum of Understanding between the Commonwealth of Australia and Medicines Australia

19 May 2010

On 6 May 2010, the Minister for Health and Ageing and the Chair of Medicines Australia signed a Memorandum of Understanding to ensure that all Australians have access to a wide range of subsidised medicines now and into the future, and at the best possible prices for all Australians.

This Memorandum of Understanding will help sustain the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme by delivering savings of some $1.9 billion.  The savings will be achieved through the expansion of existing price reform policies and include expanded arrangements for price disclosure from 1 October 2010 and increased statutory price reductions from 1 February 2011.

The Memorandum will also provide some pricing certainty to the industry and will assist in cutting red tape and improve the time taken to add new medicines to the PBS.

Update 18 September 2010:

Due to the recent Federal Election, and the extended caretaker period, the commencement date for one of the key pricing measures, price disclosure, was delayed from 1 October 2010 to 1 December 2010.

The Memorandum of Understanding was re-signed on 28 September 2010 to reflect the change in start date.