New PBS patient furore brewing

Health Minister Mark Butler has put out a fire with a decision to keep MS drugs on the PBS but there's already another patient furore brewing over access to a different life-changing treatment.

The pressure on the Commonwealth to fund a broad listing for Keytruda is ratcheting up, with The Australian newspaper publishing an article as part of its 'Medicine Wars' series focusing on the lag in listing after a recommendation was made.

Keytruda was recommended for a broad, multi-cancer listing at the PBAC's December intracycle meeting, and MSD lodged the required documentation with the Department of Health, Disability, and Ageing in February this year. Those documents are still under consideration five months later.