Professor Clarke stated that ‘budget pressures demand a new approach to the way medicine is subsidised by the Australian Government, which would do well to heed the example set by the Health Minister of Ontario, [Canada].’

Dr Shaw accused Professor Clarke of being ‘asleep for the past four months’ due to the fact that he had not noticed that ‘a major reform to the PBS was passed by the Parliament in November [2010] and ‘is already slashing the cost of off-patent medicines.’ Adding that ‘prices are falling dramatically and PBS expenditure growth is now at its lowest for 15 years.’

Dr Shaw further added that ‘the problems of expensive generics have been acknowledged by the industry and by [the Australian] Government. They have been fixed and substantial savings are starting to flow.’

Dr Shaw also rejected the validity of comparisons with other countries like Canada since the healthcare system there operates very differently. In fact, Canada spends more on pharmaceuticals as a proportion of gross domestic product than Australia does.