October Budget 2022-23: A no surprise budget for health
25 October 2022: Medicines Australia welcomes tonight’s Budget which take steps towards addressing economic pressures and introduces new funding for PBS listings.
Medicines Australia CEO, Elizabeth de Somer, said tonight’s budget concentrates on alleviating the costs of living pressures and sets into motion election commitments.
“Tonight’s budget rightly focuses on easing the cost-of-living pressures Australians are facing and fulfils the election commitments made by the incoming Labor Government,” Ms de Somer said.
“Tackling the budget deficit must go together with strong investment in health. As COVID has shown us – a thriving economy depends on a healthy population who have rapid access to innovative medicines, treatments and vaccines.
“As expected, this budget is a prelude to the May budget where we would hope to see increased investment in health innovations, medicines and technologies that improve and save lives,” Ms de Somer said.
Medicines Australia acknowledges the reduced co-payment announcement and investment into accelerating efforts to close the health gap for First Nations people.
Significant budget announcements for the medicines sector includes:
- COVID-19 vaccines and National Medical Stockpile – $355.8 million in 2022–23 for the distribution and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines and $500.0 million in 2022–23 for the procurement of additional vaccines and treatments on the National Medical Stockpile.
- Australian Centre for Disease Control – $3.2 million in 2022–23 to undertake the initial design for the establishment of an Australian Centre for Disease Control for infectious and chronic disease.
- TGA digital and business transformation – $23.3 million provided over two years from 2022-23 to modernise the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s (TGA) business systems. This will be fully cost recovered over 6 years from 2023-23 through changes to TGA cost recovery arrangements.
- PBS Data Distribution Project – $13.2 million over 4 years from 2022–23 (with $0.7 million per year ongoing) to build data linkages between Services Australia systems and the Health Products Portal.
“We look forward to getting on with the job on a number of key agreements with Government, including the crucial reform of Australia’s Health Technology Assessment (HTA),” Ms de Somer said.
“Medicines Australia will continue to work with the Albanese Government to implement much needed change to modernise health systems and speed up the time it takes for Australian patients to access the latest medicines, vaccines and treatments.”
-ENDS-
For further information or media interviews, please contact:
Chrystianna Moran – 0424 995 118 / chrystianna.moran@medicinesaustralia.com.au
Margaret Cresswell – 0410 456 293 / margaret.cresswell@medicinesaustralia.com.au