New oral contraceptive listed on PBS

A new oral contraceptive will be available on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) from 1 October.
 
Estetrol with drospirenone, sold as Nextstellis, is among the new listings on the PBS, which Federal Health and Ageing Minister Mark Butler said will expand contraceptive choices.
 
Minister Butler also said around 520,000 patients accessed a comparable oral contraception in Australia last year, and that a prescription would cost more than $328 annually without a PBS listing.
 
The Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) recommended listing the contraception in March this year, referencing consumer comments ‘highlighting equity and access issues, and that it is important there are more affordable contraceptive options available to women’.
 
It also noted ‘a range of benefits to patients, including effective contraception and menstrual management, and a more tolerable safety profile compared to older oral contraceptive pills’.
 
New October listings were also announced for three other medications, including capivasertib, sold as Truqap, for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer.
 
The Government says it expects around 3000 patients to benefit from the PBS listing, with a course otherwise costing more than $98,000.
 
There is a further listing for ranibizumab (Lucentis) for the treatment of serious eye conditions caused by diabetes, with the treatment possibly benefiting around 500 patients each year, who would previously have paid around $9000.
 
A fourth drug, Lumasiran, sold as Oxlumo, will also become available on the PBS to treat primary hyperoxaluria type 1, a rare genetic condition causing high oxalate levels that can lead to potential kidney failure, with around 50 people expected to benefit annually. It would otherwise have cost around $392,000 per year.
 
Minister Butler said the treatments ‘will be lifechanging for thousands of Australians’.
 
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contraceptive PBS Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme