The Abbott government could save more than $140 million over the next eight months simply by adhering to a recommendation from the expert body that advises it on medicines, a health expert says.
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In 2012, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee recommended that the price difference between the cholesterol-lowering drug simvastatin and a newer cholesterol-lowering medicine, atorvastatin, should, on average, be 12.5 per cent.
But the recommendation was not implemented. Simvastatin is one of scores of drugs that will drop in price by an average of 40 per cent from Tuesday under a policy limiting drug costs according to the market price.
Philip Clarke, a professor of health economics at the University of Melbourne, estimates that if the government took the committee's advice on atorvastatin and another cholesterol-lowering drug, rosuvastatin, it would save about $143 million by December. And about 93,000 patients would save an average of $160 a year.
Health Minister Peter Dutton has pledged to ''restore the independence'' of the committee and Professor Clarke said the government should also heed the committee's advice on drug prices.
Former Health Department head Stephen Duckett told the commission of audit that Australia pays, on average, almost 16 times more for off-patent drugs than Britain, New Zealand and Canada.
