On May 17th Simone and Meredith were pleased to attend the 2021 BioPharmaDispatch conference in Sydney. The morning breakfast session saw an update and discussions with the two members of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC), Chair Prof Andrew Wilson and Consumer representative Jo Watson. This session was dedicated to patient organisations who were able to get unrestricted access to information and questions and answers around PBAC decisions, and changes that are planned for more inclusion from consumers into the process. NECA looks with keen interest on these developments as we know the patient voice is vital in these drug access outcomes.
It was a full agenda throughout the day, with 12 sessions, 25 speakers and lively panel discussions. With the recent House of Reps inquiry into access to new medicines and innovative technologies top of mind, topics included: Achieving change, The PBS and law, Making patient input to decision-making real, The regional and global industry perspective, Australia’s vaccine policy, The future direction of HTA in decision making and much more. It was great to be able to catch up face to face with so many colleagues and discuss such important work.
Special thanks to the sponsors and Paul Cross (BioPharmaDispatch) for making this conference accessible to Patient organisations and for ensuring patients were the most important feature throughout the day.
Pictured left – Prof Andrew Wilson, PBAC (left) Paul Cross (right)
Pictured right (from left) – Ian Burgess, MTAA, Dr Rachel David (Private Healthcare Australia), Liz de Somer (Medicines Australia)
