This report identifies 18 specific medicines that want to be listed in Australia but have been deterred by processes and declining investment in the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). It finds that Australia’s current policy and medicines funding environment is contributing to a growing number of missing medicines, innovative therapies available in other
high-income countries but delayed, restricted, or inaccessible for Australian patients.

The examples reinforce the need to reform funding for innovative medicines and vaccines. 

Key findings

• 25% of medicines launched globally over the past decade have been listed for government subsidised access in Australia – leaving Australian patients with the ‘bitter pill’ of the three-quarters that are missing.
• The primary driver of the widening access gap is a decade of underinvestment in innovative medicines through the PBS. 
• Funding for truly innovative products has diminished, and the Australian market is no longer commercially attractive, or in some cases viable, for companies to launch new medicines.