Prescription Drug - Regulation in Australia

Regulation in Australia

In Australia the Standard for the Uniform Scheduling of Medicines and Poisons, abbreviated SUSMP, governs the manufacture and supply of drugs:

The categories defined by the SUSMP are:

• Schedule 1 - Defunct
• Schedule 2 - Pharmacy Medicine
• Schedule 3 - Pharmacist Only Medicine
• Schedule 4 - Prescription Only Medicine/Prescription Animal Remedy
• Schedule 5 - Caution
• Schedule 6 - Poison
• Schedule 7 - Dangerous Poison
• Schedule 8 - Controlled Drug (Possession without authority illegal)
• Schedule 9 - Prohibited Substance
• Unscheduled Substances

Similar to the UK, the patient visits a health practitioner, such as a doctor, nurse, dentist, podiatrist, etc., who is able to prescribe the drug.

Many prescriptions issued by health practitioners in Australia are covered by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme ; a scheme that provides subsidised prescription drugs to residents of Australia to ensure that all Australians have affordable and reliable access to a wide range of necessary medicines. When purchasing a drug under the PBS the maximum price a consumer pays is the patient co-payment contribution which, as of January 1, 2012 is A$35.40 for general patients. Those covered by government entitlements (low-income earners, welfare recipients, Health Care Card holders, etc.) and those covered under the Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (RPBS) have a reduced co-payment which is $5.80 in 2012. The table below indicates the changes in co-payments over the years. These co-payments are compulsory and cannot be discounted by pharmacies under any circumstances.

Private prescriptions are also issued which are for medicines not covered on the PBS or for medicines being used for indications other than that are covered by the PBS. For these prescriptions, the patient will pay the pharmacy directly for the cost of the medicine and the pharmacy's dispensing fee.