PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you very much Wes.
You’re right; we’ve all got a passionate interest in health. So many of my parliamentary colleagues are here tonight. The Honourable Greg Hunt, Minister for Health, Bill Shorten, the Leader of the Opposition and it’s good to also be joined by Milton Catelin, the Chief Executive of Medicines Australia. And of course, so many members of the industry.
It is a real pleasure to be here to thank the industry that contributes so much to the health and wealth of our nation.
Australian medical research and development is the envy of the world. As the displays tonight show, our pharmaceutical sector is a big part of the reason why.
Vaccines and drugs produced by Medicines Australia members save so many Australian lives each year. And they change the lives for the better of countless more.
But it’s the stories behind the statistics that really demonstrate how access to a vaccine or newly listed medication can change lives.
On Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day last year, I told the House the story of a woman named Karyn, from Yass—not far from here.
Karyn is a single parent, with three children, including a daughter with an intellectual disability. In 2010, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and by 2012, the cancer had spread.
Back then, medicines used to treat HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer—Perjeta and Kadcyla —cost patients more than $82,000 a year.
But the Federal Government has since then listed both of those drugs on the PBS, meaning Karyn, and many others like her, have a much better quality of life, they can get on with their careers, get back to being with their families, and being mothers, daughters, carers and friends.
No one can describe it better than Karyn herself, who said: “To say that Kadcyla turned my life around is a major understatement. For the first time in years, I was well enough to do more. I was able to catch up on my daughter's medical stuff that I'd struggled to be on top of. I could actually go out with the family and have some quality of life again. The fact that it is available to me, just an average mum, wanting to hang in there for her kids, is truly a complete blessing.”
This kind of blessing would not have happened without the industry’s commitment to excellence, to saving lives.
It is also the result of all of us working together.
The Strategic Agreement we signed with Medicines Australia this year is one of many new health agreements we entered into at the Budget.
I know that your sector has been seeking policy certainty and pricing stability for a long time.
Our new Agreement delivers both and it strikes the right balance for consumers and for patients too.
The savings it generates are being reinvested in the system, with new and amended listings to the PBS to improve access to medicines for the people who need them most.
A great example of that is Entresto, now available for a fraction of the cost for patients with chronic heart failure.
For the more than 60,000 Australians who would have paid around $2,000 a year for these medicines, today, the concession price is just $6.30.
In May I met a patient who explained how this drug had changed his life - with his heart failing and breathless, he struggled to walk even short distances. But now he can walk from the city to the Sydney Cricket Ground to watch the mighty Swans, a distance of several kilometres, as you know. And I hope he makes the journey this weekend to see the Swans beat the Bombers.
That really is life changing medicine.
Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is one of the foundations of our universal health care system.
But as we all know, it takes at least a decade and an average of $2.5 billion to bring a new medicine from its conception in a laboratory to treatment for a patient.
It is often said that the second pill might cost 10c, but the first pill costs $1 billion.
A successful listing on the PBS is the final step in a long process of research and development, and my Government is working hard to make Australia a great place to invest in for your industry.
So it was encouraging to hear AstraZeneca announce recently that it will spend $100 million to expand its manufacturing plant in Sydney, to help meet rising demands for asthma medicine, particularly in China.
We want to see more of this type of confidence in Australian skills and in Australian innovation.
A big part of that is maintaining an intellectual property system that supports R&D, and shaping the R&D tax settings required to maintain a competitive commercial environment.
Australian researchers are among the best in the world - we are naturally innovative and ingenious, but we have not done well at commercialising our research.
Our National Innovation and Science Agenda has singled out the medicines sector as a key area for growth, and, as part of our Biomedical Translation Fund, $500 million of new capital is being funnelled into the commercialisation of Australian-born innovation.
We are investing more than $65 million from the first round of disbursements from the Medical Research Future Fund to support more research, deliver new medical breakthroughs and enhance patient care.
This includes $33 million for clinical trials that will build on Australia’s world-class research strengths, ensuring we remain a preferred destination for research.
Pharmaceuticals make up Australia’s largest manufacturing export, to the tune of almost $4 billion a year.
Add to that investments of more than $1 billion a year in Australian R&D, running hundreds of clinical trials, and the fact that your member companies support 15,000 Australian jobs—indirectly, of course many thousands more.
Tonight is a celebration of this enormous contribution that you’re making.
And it is a celebration of the fact that your investments, your commitment, and your collaborative spirit deliver something that will always remain priceless: and that’s hope.
Thank you very much. Have a great evening.
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