Lopert Ruth
Therapeutic Goods Administration, Australian Department of Heatlh and Aging.
Issue Brief (Commonw Fund). 2009 Jul;60:1-13.
In Australia, most prescription drugs are subsidized through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), one of several government programs in which evidence-based decision making is applied to the funding of health technologies. PBS processes are intended to ensure "value for money" for the Australian taxpayer and to support affordable, equitable access to prescription medicines; they are not intended as a mechanism for cost containment. The inclusion of a drug on the national formulary depends on the recommendation of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC), which considers not only the comparative effectiveness but also the comparative cost-effectiveness of drugs proposed for listing. While some decisions have been controversial, the PBS retains strong public support. Moreover, evidence does not suggest that the consideration of cost-effectiveness has created a negative environment for the drug industry: Australia has a high penetration of patented medicines, with prices for some recently approved drugs at U.S. levels.
在澳大利亚，大多数处方药通过药品福利计划（PBS）获得补贴，该计划是政府的几个项目之一，其中基于证据的决策被应用于卫生技术的资金投入。PBS流程旨在确保为澳大利亚纳税人实现“物有所值”，并支持人们以可承受的价格公平获取处方药；其目的并非作为成本控制机制。一种药物能否被列入国家药品目录取决于药品福利咨询委员会（PBAC）的建议，该委员会不仅会考虑药物的相对有效性，还会考虑拟列入清单的药物的相对成本效益。虽然有些决策存在争议，但PBS仍获得了公众的大力支持。此外，没有证据表明对成本效益的考量给制药行业营造了负面环境：澳大利亚专利药品的渗透率很高，一些最近获批药物的价格与美国相当。
