Biggest PBAC headaches revealed

Securing the PBAC's recommendation appears to have been a much tougher battle for some companies over the past four years with seven pharmas suffering a failure rate of 50 per cent or higher, exclusive Pharma in Focus analysis shows.

The analysis looked at company submissions (excluding those classified 'not applicable') between 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2023 and compared those that were recommended to those that failed to get over the line, meaning they were either rejected, deferred or advice was provided.

Japanese pharma Kyowa Kirin, which raised concerns of the PBAC process in a submission to the Zimmerman parliamentary inquiry, has faced a failure rate of 80 per cent, seeking to list two new medicines - Poteligeo and Crysvita, with the latter finally recommended in 2022.