Four life-saving cancer drugs put on PBS

An expensive anti-cancer drug that treats an aggressive form of lymphoma will be subsidized starting next month, which will make it affordable for hundreds of patients

Imbruvica drug is used to treat mantle lymphoma when there is relapse after chemotherapy. Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt announced that as of August 1, Imbruvica would be available through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Program.

He will join three other drugs that treat the head and neck cancer, blood cancer and the side effects of chemotherapy.

"Its total cost of $ 250 million will help save and protect the lives of thousands of patients each year," Hunt told reporters Sunday in Melbourne. This will allow families to save their lives or change their lives.

"I hope that many families will be able to breathe a great sigh of relief, a sigh of relief for financial reasons, but especially for health reasons."

The four drugs should help 4000 to 5,000 people a year, said Mr Hunt.

Associate Professor Constantine Tam treated patients with Imbruvica in a clinical trial in Melbourne and said the drug was working. By targeting a gene that cancer needs to survive, the rest of the body does not need it.

Patient Ertugrul Delibalta is a 70-year-old retiree who was diagnosed for the first time with the mantle lymphone about six years ago. "They said we could not do chemotherapy because if we start chemotherapy again, we will kill you," Delibalta told reporters.

million. Delibalta said that he was put on Dr. Tam's test – a life-saving and cost-saving move – because "it would have been too difficult and I would have died" if he was paying for the drug.