PBS Website Update
The Schedule of Pharmaceutical Benefits has been updated. New, Amended and Deleted items can be found on the Summary of Changes page.
PBAC Recommendations for amendments to COVID-19 oral treatment restrictions
The Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) has recommended amending the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) eligibility criteria for both COVID-19 medicines molnupiravir (Lagevrio®) and nirmatrelvir and ritonavir (Paxlovid®) to be method-agnostic with regards to nucleic acid testing for respiratory pathogen detection. The PBAC Outcome Statement and updates to the molnupiravir (Lagevrio®) and nirmatrelvir and ritonavir (Paxlovid®) Fact sheets are now available.
Expanded access to dapagliflozin for type 2 diabetes patients with high cardiovascular risk
On 1 December 2024, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) restrictions for dapagliflozin were expanded to allow treatment in combination with metformin (unless contraindicated/intolerant) with no glycaemic requirements for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and high cardiovascular risk. This includes patients with cardiovascular disease, those at high risk of a cardiovascular event, and Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander patients. Further information is available on the PBS restriction changes to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) medicines webpage.
New API for PBS schedule data
There is a new API (application programming interface) for the efficient distribution of the
monthly PBS schedule data. The PBS API contains the full dataset of the PBS Schedule, including details of the medicines subsidised by the Australian Government and the conditions for their prescribing and dispensing. The PBS Schedule and the data in the PBS API is updated on the first day of every month. The PBS API will replace all existing data formats (XML and Text files) and users of existing PBS Schedule data files are encouraged to move to the new PBS API as soon as practical. 1 June 2025 will be the last PBS schedule for which data in existing formats will be released. For users who don’t require the functionality of the PBS API, a set of ‘PBS API CSV files’ containing all the PBS API endpoints (tables) in CSV format will also be published every month.
Further information about the new PBS API and PBS API CSV files can be found on the PBS Downloads page.