Top PBS earners revealed

Novartis earned the most from the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for the financial year ending 2021, the PBS Expenditure and Prescriptions Report reveals.

Overall, the top 21 pharmas accounted for $10.01 billion of PBS spending in 2020-2021, or about 73 per cent of total spending.

The values given in the report are for Section 85 and Section 100 drugs, excluding Efficient Funding of Chemotherapy items, and including Drs Bag. To get a better idea of company ranking, we added to a company's total any drug included in the report that is listed in the Efficient Funding of Chemotherapy schedule, except those with generic or biosimilar competition as those figures cannot be separated.