Government-subsidised access to effective medicines in Australia is provided via the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). Decisions to subsidise medicines are based on assessment of cost-effectiveness (“value for money”) by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC).1 In effect, the PBS is “purchasing” health outcomes. As the majority of medicine use is publicly funded via the PBS, there is an obligation to monitor the outcomes to determine whether the expected health improvements are actually realised.
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Kenneth Williams has been a member of the Advisory Board to the sponsor for adalimumab. Richard Day is a member of the Advisory Board to sponsors for adalimumab, infliximab, and anakinra in Australia. Kenneth Williams and Richard Day have also been contracted to undertake clinical trials of etanercept, infliximab, adalimumab, and anakinra. Recompense for these activities was placed in audited hospital trust funds for use in the research activities of the Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, NSW.