Analysis of PBAC submissions and outcomes for medicines (2010-2018)

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) provides timely, reliable, and affordable access to necessary medicines for Australians. We reviewed the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) submissions and their related outcomes and timelines since 2010.

We examined the PBS Website to identify submissions and their related PBAC outcomes for new medicines, new indications, and new combination products that had been considered by the PBAC since 2010.

Thirty-five PBAC meetings were held during the study period, at which the Committee considered 781 submissions (1,074 medicine/patient population pairings). We saw an increase in the annual number of submissions (medicine/patient population parings). The recommendation rate for the study period was higher than the rejection rate. The annual mean value for the period from the date of initial PBAC recommendation to the date of PBS listing ranged from 357 to 644 days; the annual mean value for the period of the date of PBAC recommendation to the date of PBS listing ranged from 187 to 245 days. It took, on average, 1.70 submissions that included an economic evaluation to obtain a PBAC recommendation. It took more submissions to obtain a PBAC recommendation for a cost-effectiveness analysis submission than it did for a CMA submission. The PBAC was willing to recommend medicines for most acceptable base-case incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) bands, and the majority of the PBAC did not recommended any medicine in the study period that had a base-case ICER >AUD75,000.

The results of our analyses reveal a minor reduction in the period from the date of PBAC recommendation to the date of PBS listing. Several analyses were hampered by a high proportion of missing data.