Australians living with recurrent melanoma will have a new treatment option subsidised by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
Patients with advanced melanoma will be reimbursed for a treatment called Opdualag – a combination of immunotherapies that help the body fight cancer.
Australia has some of the highest rates of melanoma in the world, with one person dying from the skin cancer every six hours.
When Opdualag becomes available under the PBS from 1 February, about 940 patients will benefit each year.
The health minister, Mark Butler, said without the subsidy, these same patients could pay about $315,000 for a course of treatment.
“With cheaper medicines we are supporting millions of Australians with chronic, ongoing conditions so they don’t have to choose between health care and paying the bills,” he said.
One melanoma patient, Felicity Lloyd, knows how expensive treatment can be.
Lloyd required two sets of medication and, while both were listed on the PBS, she said the subsidy required they be used in an order that did not best suit her situation.
Fortunately, her family was able to pay for one of the medications and she received compassionate access to another. She was cleared of cancer again but continues to undergo some treatment.
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She is acutely aware that overcoming cancer can require multiple, costly treatments and welcomed the new addition to the PBS.
“It took multiple treatments for me to achieve no evidence of disease,” she said. “Treatment and access to treatment is improving all the time.”
A co-medical director of Melanoma Institute Australia, Prof Georgina Long, said preventing melanoma remained paramount.
Immunotherapy was changing the approach to treatment of patients with advanced melanoma, Long said, but more needed to be done.
Since the beginning of 2023, Australians have saved more than $240m after the government lowered the maximum cost of prescription medications listed on the PBS.
Anthony Albanese said these were just a few of the measures that would help alleviate the cost of living.
“We know Australians have been doing it tough, which is why we are providing cost of living relief without adding to inflation,” the prime minister said.