Sydney, May 20, 2019 – Novartis Australia today congratulates the returning Morrison Coalition Government, and urges the Government to continue to work with industry to implement their strong election commitments to health.
The company commends the Coalition Government on their $308 million commitment to further cut the cost of life changing medicines to Australians who require multiple medicines and the $100 million package to increase access to clinical trials for rural cancer patients. As the industry’s largest investor in clinical trials, Novartis believes this reflects the critical importance of research innovation in Australia.
Lauren Carey, Country President of Novartis Australia and New Zealand, recognises that in addition to the successful implementation of election commitments and continued implementation of the Medicines Australia Strategic Agreement, the incoming government faces some immediate challenges of critical importance to the Australian Healthcare system.
“Novartis Australia is committed to assisting the Government in tackling the complexities of potential reimbursement avenues for innovative new cell and gene therapies. We recognise that the Government will be facing some of the biggest challenges since the creation of the PBS, which will require the collaboration of both State and Federal governments for these in-hospital treatments. However, this must be addressed for Australia to keep pace as one of the best healthcare systems in the world.
“In addition, through our Sandoz division, we will continue to partner with the Government to play our part in identifying cost efficient solutions to slow the growth in health expenditure such as biosimilars and generic medicine,” Ms Carey concluded.
Novartis thanks the Coalition Government for listing over 2,000 medicines on the PBS since coming into office in 2013, some of which enabled Australian patients to access new treatments for heart failure and metastatic breast cancer medicines. The organisation looks forward to continuing work with the Morrison Government to improve and extend the lives of Australians.
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