Fri 20th Jan 2006

The pharmaceutical industry’s power

Published in The Age on Friday, January 20, 2006

KIERAN Schneemann and the pharmaceutical industry lobby group Medicines Australia (Letters, 18/1) choose to evade the influence the pharmaceutical industry has on drug policy in the US and their encroachment into policy here in Australia through the Australia-US free trade agreement.

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme has traditionally had the interests of the Australian population and public health guidelines as its basis – not rewarding so-called “innovation” of the pharmaceutical industry.

Subjecting the PBS to a trade agreement has been a backward step for health policy in Australia.

Dr Tracy Schrader, national vice-president, Doctors Reform Society