Campaign News
A mother’s renewed appeal to the government to save her young daughter’s life – July 31, 2015
On December 1, 2014, the small aHUS Australian community celebrated with the PBS listing of Soliris (eculizumab) through Section 100: Highly Specialised Drugs Program for those who meet certain criteria, and the earmarking of $63 million in treatment funding over the next four years. Since then, our celebrations have begun to sour, as aHUS patients currently accessing…
Read MoreAustralians returning & disposing 600 tonnes of unwanted medicines each year – June 5, 2015
A study published in Australian Prescriber on June 1, 2015 has found more than $2 million of public money is wasted each year with the return of more than 600 tonnes of medicines, many of which are still within their expiry dates, through the National Return and Disposal of Unwanted Medicines Program, since its inception…
Read MorePBAC advises biosimilar medicines suitable for substitution at pharmacy level – June 2, 2015
In late April, 2015, The Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) pledged to consider marking biosimilar medicines equivalent to originator medicines, to which they are referenced against in Australia. This process would involve “a flagging”, whereby the biosimilar would be compared to the originator, in order to identify any significant differences in clinical efficacy or safety.…
Read More7.9 month improvement in metastatic bowel cancer patients following microsphere radiotherapy and chemotherapy – June 2, 2015
As published on Bowel Cancer Australia’s website today, results from an Australian-led global study have shown that treatment with radiation microspheres and chemotherapy (chemo-radiotherapy) improved progression-free survival in the liver by around eight months among metastatic bowel cancer patients. The SIRFLOX study – the world’s largest study of its kind involving 530 metastatic bowel cancer patients…
Read MoreFatal lung infection not on public’s radar – May 19, 2015
Fatal lung infection not on public’s radar Experts calling for Aussie adults to curtail risk of infection this Pneumonia Awareness Week Fewer than one-in-seven Australian adults at-risk of pneumonia consider themselves vulnerable, with only one-in-five having reported vaccinating against the often-fatal lung infection.1 In addition to advancing age (65+), Lung Foundation Australia’s ‘Lungs4Life’ research released…
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