Free trade in pharmaceuticals.
Provisions in the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) may threaten the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), the "gold standard" of such programs worldwide. If Australia postpones passing of the US Free Trade Agreement Implementation Bill in the Senate, there will be opportunity for broader interests in both the United States and Australia to carefully study the agreement. The provisions of AUSFTA relating to the PBS are supposed to promote transparency, but the pharmaceutical manufacturers themselves (who are demanding transparency) do not reveal the content of their submissions to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, or disclose all their financial relationships with researchers and policymakers. In AUSFTA, the "public health" language of affordable prescription drugs is missing and is replaced by language supporting "pharmaceutical innovation". Debate as to whether AUSFTA will force significant changes to the PBS, including higher drug prices, is currently under way in Australia. Perhaps the appropriate target of reforms should be the excessive US drug prices, and not the economically efficient Australian drug prices.
Outterson
M Kevin
MK
College of Law, West Virginia University, University Avenue, 6130, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA. Kevin.Outterson@mail.wvu.edu
D001315:Australia; D003132:Commerce; D016527:Drug Costs; D014481:United States