National Medicines Policy: Response to the Draft

This submission responds to the Australian Government’s consultation on the draft National Medicines Policy (NMP), prepared by the Expert Advisory Committee and run by the Department of Health as an online survey. Research Australia agrees with the draft’s aim, scope, principles, seven enablers (including research and data) and four central pillars, and supports the inclusion of researchers as NMP partners. It maintains that research should have a larger, explicit role: assessing whether access to medicines is timely and equitable, using Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) and hospital data to understand medicines use and cost barriers to adherence, improving standards and Health Technology Assessment, and supporting consumer decision-making and quality use of medicines, citing the Veterans’ MATES program. On the industry pillar, it notes that Australia ranked 23rd in global pharmaceutical exports in 2019, with USD3.2 billion or 0.55% of the USD582 billion total, against imports of USD7.38 billion, and calls pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing a sensible area to expand. Research Australia disagrees with the governance, implementation and evaluation sections, arguing that they treat diverse partners such as researchers as single accountable entities and overlap with each other. It recommends redrafting governance to define partners’ roles, merging governance and implementation, a Department-led mapping of partner roles, a dedicated research funding stream for the NMP through programs such as the Medical Research Future Fund, and further consultation before the policy is finalised.