“From 1 January the medicine Xalkori® (crizotinib) will made available through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) for lung cancer patients with a c-ROS proto-oncogene 1 (ROS1) gene rearrangement.
The drug may stop or slow the growth of Stage IIIB (locally advanced) or Stage IV (metastatic) non-small cell lung cancer.
Without the PBS subsidy the drug would cost over $140,000 per patient, per year.
Patients with this rare form of lung cancer will now pay a maximum of $40.30 per script or just $6.50 per script for concessional patients, including pensioners.”
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