[Discussion] we are measuring PBS at the wrong time and calling it noise
we are measuring PBS at the wrong time and calling it noise. Not a hot take, just something I have not seen said plainly here.
The national shortage database is a primary source with expected resolution dates attached. It is public, searchable, and consistently more accurate than reporting about it.
Where to look instead of asking, which will nearly always be faster.
The national shortage database is public, searchable and carries expected resolution dates. The subsidy criteria for each indication are published. Your pharmacist can check wholesaler availability in a few minutes, which is a different question from what is on the shelf.
Between those three, most questions on this board are answerable in half an hour with primary sources. The board is genuinely useful for experience, pricing comparison and the parts that are not written down anywhere — it is a poor substitute for a document that exists.
On the compounded supply question, which changed and left a trail of superseded threads.
The arrangements that governed compounded supply here have changed materially, and a great deal of what is written on this board describes the previous position. Search results do not carry a date warning, so people arrive at old threads and act on them.
If you are reading anything on this subject here, check when it was posted and check the current official position before relying on it. And if you know the current position well, writing it up plainly with a date on it is probably the single most useful thing anyone can post on this board this year.
If two or three other people have done the same thing we might actually learn something. Alone it is an anecdote.
best — the order this archive was captured in
The two decisions that this whole board turns on, kept apart.
Registration means a product may lawfully be supplied. Subsidy listing means the public system will fund it, for a defined indication, against published criteria. They are made by different bodies on different timetables, and a product can be registered and unsubsidised for a given use for a long time.
Almost every "why can I not get this" thread here is really a question about the second decision being answered with facts about the first. Say which one you are asking about and the thread resolves in two replies.
I would not treat one pharmacy’s quote as the national price. Variation between them is substantial.
The two decisions that this whole board turns on, kept apart.
lane_watcher is right that the two countries are separate systems and the answers diverge.
Checked the shortage database myself instead of reading the coverage. Expected resolution date was right there and the panic thread was wrong.
Checked the shortage database myself instead of reading the coverage.
Agreed — the database rather than the coverage, every time.
What did the pharmacy quote for the private price?
Yes — importing US threads into an Australian question produces confident nonsense every single time.
private script pricing varies by pharmacy here too
pharmacy stock and national supply are different questions
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the Medsafe position in New Zealand is its own thing entirely
PBS listing and TGA registration are two different questions
compounded supply arrangements changed and the threads have not caught up
the price you pay depends on the listing status of your indication
Country added to the title. Australia and New Zealand answers differ and the thread was unusable without it.
Cosigning on asking the pharmacy to check the wholesaler. It converts speculation into a fact in one phone call.
Have you checked the shortage database directly?
Australia and New Zealand have different regulators, different funding bodies and different arrangements. An answer for one is not evidence about the other.
the TGA shortage database is public and it is the source, not the news
Are you quoting advice from before the compounded arrangements changed?
Disagree — that is registration status, and the question was about subsidy. Different decisions, different bodies.
a streamlined authority code is not the same as a general listing
Someone posted US advice in an Australian thread and it took four replies to untangle it. Say your country.
Assumed the New Zealand position applied here. It does not, and someone corrected me politely with the actual source.
- 1Country added to the title. Australia and New Zealand answers differ and the…6 comments in this branch · started by u/lane_watcher