3 years ago
TWELVE MONTHS OF ANGUISH FOR MIGRAINE SUFFERERS
CHRIS BOWEN MP
Today marks twelve months since the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee recommended the drug Emgality be listed for migraine sufferers on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
This means it has been one year of the Minister for Health refusing to list the drug.
Minister Hunt says he’s serious about listing every PBAC recommendation but nothing could be further from reality.
There are 400,000 Australians experiencing chronic migraine in Australia waiting for this life changing medicine, which is safely approved by the TGA and recommended for subsidy by the PBAC.
Labor has consistently called on the Government to list Emgality for people like Lyn from Orchard Hills who has been given a second chance at life with these drugs after she suffered from debilitating chronic migraine for twenty four years.
Emgality is amongst a new class of drug which mitigates or prevents migraine by targeting the calcitonin gene-related peptide, a migraine inducing protein.
Chronic migraine sufferers experience more than fifteen migraine or headache days each month. And without subsidy Emgality is too expensive for many of them.
There are too many Australians going without treatment or paying beyond their means for a drug that has been approved by the Government’s own independent advisory board.
Instead of listing the medicine on the PBS, Minister Hunt has been playing politics, accusing the pharmaceutical manufacturer of astroturfing with advocacy groups, and citing improper and inappropriate company behaviour on safety and efficacy issues.
The Minister is yet to retract these deeply offensive and misleading comments and apologise for the hurt to migraine sufferers.
The Minister could list Emgality today if he wanted to. A year on from its recommendation, excuses have run out.
It’s time to list Emgality now.
This means it has been one year of the Minister for Health refusing to list the drug.
Minister Hunt says he’s serious about listing every PBAC recommendation but nothing could be further from reality.
There are 400,000 Australians experiencing chronic migraine in Australia waiting for this life changing medicine, which is safely approved by the TGA and recommended for subsidy by the PBAC.
Labor has consistently called on the Government to list Emgality for people like Lyn from Orchard Hills who has been given a second chance at life with these drugs after she suffered from debilitating chronic migraine for twenty four years.
Emgality is amongst a new class of drug which mitigates or prevents migraine by targeting the calcitonin gene-related peptide, a migraine inducing protein.
Chronic migraine sufferers experience more than fifteen migraine or headache days each month. And without subsidy Emgality is too expensive for many of them.
There are too many Australians going without treatment or paying beyond their means for a drug that has been approved by the Government’s own independent advisory board.
Instead of listing the medicine on the PBS, Minister Hunt has been playing politics, accusing the pharmaceutical manufacturer of astroturfing with advocacy groups, and citing improper and inappropriate company behaviour on safety and efficacy issues.
The Minister is yet to retract these deeply offensive and misleading comments and apologise for the hurt to migraine sufferers.
The Minister could list Emgality today if he wanted to. A year on from its recommendation, excuses have run out.
It’s time to list Emgality now.