# Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee

Source: https://onco.cc/institutions/pbac/  
OnCo record `pbac` (Institution). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

The independent committee that decides which medicines Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme subsidises, and at what price, on cost-effectiveness evidence.

## Summary

The PBAC is an independent expert body appointed by the Australian Government under the National Health Act 1953; no new medicine can be listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme without a positive PBAC recommendation. It assesses comparative effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, publishes Public Summary Documents for every decision, and negotiates risk-sharing and managed-access arrangements for expensive cancer drugs with uncertain evidence. The PBS is one of the oldest universal medicines subsidy schemes and its rejections and deferrals of high-cost oncology drugs are closely watched by companies and patient groups. Registration by the TGA must precede or run in parallel with PBAC consideration.

## Fields

- Kind: Institution
- Last checked: 2026-09-09
- Also known as: PBAC; Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
- City: Canberra, AU
- Type: government
- Website: https://www.pbs.gov.au/industry/listing/participants/pbac

## Sources

- PBAC: https://www.pbs.gov.au/industry/listing/participants/pbac

## Connected records

- institutions: [Cancer Council Australia](https://onco.cc/institutions/cancer-council-australia/), [ISPOR (The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research)](https://onco.cc/institutions/ispor/), [National Institute for Health and Care Excellence](https://onco.cc/institutions/nice/), [Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre](https://onco.cc/institutions/peter-mac/), [Therapeutic Goods Administration](https://onco.cc/institutions/tga/)
- terms: [Overall survival (OS)](https://onco.cc/terms/os/), [Real-world evidence](https://onco.cc/terms/real-world-evidence/)
- people: [Robyn Ward](https://onco.cc/people/robyn-ward/)
- bottlenecks: [Most of the world has almost no cancer care](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-global-access/), [Prices and value](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-drug-pricing/)
- ideas: [Copy the Cancer Drugs Fund: pay for uncertain drugs while collecting the data](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-cost-managed-access-everywhere/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/pbac.json