The Hon. Greg Hunt MP
Minister for Health and Aged Care
MEDIA RELEASE
01 May 2022
Expanding support for Australians with eosinophilic oesophagitis and other conditions
From May 1, Australians will have cheaper access to treatments for breast cancer, spinal muscular atrophy and eosinophilic oesophagitis (EoE), ensuring they can continue to access the medicines they need, when they need them.
Eosinophilic oesophagitis is an inflammatory condition of the gullet (food pipe) that can cause pain and difficulty swallowing, chest pain, regurgitation of food or food to get stuck.
From Sunday, patients with eosinophilic oesophagitis will have subsidised access to Jorveza® (budesonide) – an orally disintegrating tablet/corticosteroid for the treatment of EoE on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
Without subsidy, around 2000 Australian patients would pay up to $5,000 a year for this medication. Now, patients will only pay a maximum of $42.50 per script, or as little as $6.80 with a concession card.
Jorveza® joins other medications to be listed on the PBS from May 1, including:
- Zolgensma® (onasemnogene abeparvovec) for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy in children less than nine-months old with type 1 SMA or pre-symptomatic patients with 1-2 copies of the SMN2 gene, which will save families of an average of 20 patients each year more than $2.5 million per treatment.
- Trodelvy® (sacituzumab govitecan) for the treatment of triple negative breast cancer, which will save an average of 580 patients each year $80,000 per course of treatment.
- Ofev® (nintedanib) for use in the treatment of progressive fibrosing interstitial lung disease, which will save more than 1,400 Australians around $40,000 a year.
Minister for Health and Aged Care, Greg Hunt, said the new listings on the PBS this month continued the Morrison Government’s commitment to ensuring Australians can access treatments they need without huge out of pocket costs.
“Since 2013, the Coalition Government has approved more than 2,900 new and amended listings on the PBS. This is at an overall investment by Government of over $16.5 billion,” Minister Hunt said.
“The Morrison Government’s commitment to ensuring Australians can access affordable medicines, when they need them, remains rock solid.
“This is in stark contrast to Labor, who when last in Government stopped the listing of medicines onto the PBS.”
This PBS listing has been recommended by the independent Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee.
–ENDS-