DR MUKESH HAIKERWAL:    The AMA has received the news that the government has accepted the amendments to the enabling legislation on the free trade agreement regarding the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

                                                         Throughout the whole process the AMA line's been very clear, that the PBS really isn't part of trade.  In that it actually became part of the agreement it was important to preserve, for the Australian citizens, access to pharmaceuticals at an affordable price; affordable to the individual but also affordable to us as taxpayers because, at the end of the day, the taxpayers foot the majority of the bill for all pharmaceutical drugs.

                                                         The sticking point seems to have been the introduction of legislation which might have reduced the access to generic drugs.  Generic drugs bring down the benchmark cost for medications and also ensure that the cost that we as taxpayers pay is kept to an absolute minimum.

                                                         We believe that this is a sensible resolution to the situation.  We think it's a bipartisan approach to what every Australian actually admires, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.  But it's not just Australia that admires it.  It's admired overseas and that's why it's under siege. 

                                                         We commend the government for pursuing this in the way that they have, by ensuring the review process is fair and effective.  But also we commend the Labor Party for pushing ahead and ensuring that what's there is actually bedded in and that's what their resolutions will do.

REPORTER:                                 Doctor, the Prime Minister today commented that the PBS was as safe as houses.  And I notice you've just mentioned that it's a regime that's under attack.  There's more than patents involved isn't there, because the FTA doesn't use the WTO wording relating to this area but keeps using the expression about innovative products.  Do you see this as a way that the Australian government is going to end up paying for American R and D on drugs?

HAIKERWAL:                               Look, I think, th... it's a bit of a furphy from the American pharmaceutical companies that only American companies develop new drugs.  Drugs are developed in every country in the world, including Australia; number one.  Number two, many of the drugs that are developed in the USA are actually paid for by the US government; number two.

                                                         The costs that we as Australian taxpayers incur for drugs is actually top dollar.  We don't actually pay a particularly low price.  Overall we get a good price; we get good value for money.  But we don't get a pr... you know, a cheap rate here, we actually pay top dollar.

                                                         Regarding the wording around WTO and free trade and so on I'm sure there will be th... there will be people trying still to undermine the PBS because the PBS is effective.  The PBS is an effective system.  We get good access to drugs.  The quality of those drugs is high and the price that we pay is not outrageous.  It's a system that other people around the world want to take up, that's why we have to be careful to preserve it.

REPORTER:                                 The Americans are saying they'll ... reserving position on this amendments.  If they were to come back and say no they didn't like them, would you argue that the PBS should be removed from the FTA?

HAIKERWAL:                               Look, the PBS is about maintaining the health of Australians.  Every single citizen in Australia has access to pharmaceuticals and access to medical services, and that is not the case in the USA.  I think that what we have to do is to maintain our pre-eminence in providing our citizens with good health and try and make sure that the threats to it are not allowed to deliver.

REPORTER:                                 Doctor, do you think there's the slightest chance of the Americans overturning the FTA on this little minor matter, when they're turning handsprings of delight in the Washington big pharm (ph.sp.) lobby about the wonderful victory they've had over Australia?

HAIKERWAL:                               Well, the Medicines Australia, which are the ... the equivalent of pharma (ph.sp.) in Australia has worked for ... with the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee on the review process that the free trade agreement has allowed in.  That's the only change, really, the free trade agreement has actually allowed in. 

                                                         If the government had decided not to agree, that's something I can't really comment on because it's, again, beyond the scope of the Medical Association.

REPORTER:                                 What do you think of the significance of the chief US negotiator leaving the State Department as soon as the American Congress had signed up and now being a lobbyist in Washington for the US drug industry?

HAIKERWAL:                               Well, obviously, people need to make career decisions based on what's in their best interests.  I think that they will ... there will obviously be people that will lobby one way or the other.  As far as we're concerned the PBS has to maintain its integrity.

                                                         We have to make sure that we as Australians get access to good quality but also well priced medication, and that the system that we have - the enviable system that we have - is not dismantled.    We don't want to go down the US route where ten million people don't have insurance and access to health services and don't have access to medications.  In Australia every citizen gets access to medications and there's very little out of pocket costs.

REPORTER:                                 Dr Haikerwal, are you aware of claims by Julia Gillard in parliament that the federal government effectively bullied the Chief Medical Officer over vaccines advice?

HAIKERWAL:                               I'm not aware of any such exchange ...

REPORTER:                                 Does the AMA have any concerns about the alleged conditions that Australian Mamdouh Habib is being held in Guantanamo Bay at all?

HAIKERWAL:                               Oh look, you know, the medical treatment of prisoners and of refugees is something we've had a say on.  We believe that it should be the same as everybody else.  The reason why they've been detained is a political decision that I can't really comment on.

REPORTER:                                 Dr Haikerwal, now that you ... the AMA has the taste of the Howard government's blood, do you intend to take perhaps a more robust approach in the forthcoming election campaign?

HAIKERWAL:                               The AMA really has always had an intention of making health an important issue in the election.  We launch ... at the Press Club speech that Dr Bill Glasson, the president, gave a manifesto of what we think is in important in health.  We don't believe we've tasted that, we believe we've seen ... we've tasted some commonsense and that's very important.   We've seen that from the way in which the Free Trade Agreement was carried through to the implementation of the review process and then towards the end we've seen that with the acceptance of the amendments by Labor which will embed the benefits of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme as we currently know it.

REPORTER:                                 Do you believe all political parties should give donations from James Hardie back to victims of asbestosis?

HAIKERWAL:                               Look, I think, the ... I apologise for saying look all the time (laughs).  The issue of James Hardie donations being returned back to the fund for victims of asbestos is a very positive move by the Labor Party.  The question as to how far back that goes, I mean, that's a matter for each of the individual parties to make.  It's similar in its intention to not taking donations from tobacco companies and, I think, it's very sound and very politically correct.

Ends