In one attempt to tackle soaring drug costs, in the UK in 2007 the National Institute of Clinical Excellence brokered a deal with drug manufacturer Janssen-Cilag to only pay for the anticancer drug Velcade if it worked -- so-called pay-for-performance. Perhaps other publically-funded health agencies and health insurance companies should consider such deals. See http://bit.ly/jjAnE7

Wonderful ideas - hope they can be implemented quickly.

One of the problems with individual reaction to pharmaceuticals is that often when a prescribed medication is not working as well as required, Doctors add another drug rather than discontinue the ineffective and try another.

As heaviest users of prescription meds are the elderly and chronically ill, both groups likely recipients of the highest PBS subsidy (paying only $5.60 per PBS schedule script while rest of us pay $34.20 min) the costs soon accrue. Add to this serious consequences of overmedication that are often overlooked when the patient presents at Doctors surgery with problems, often to be prescribed yet another drug for the distressing symptoms or at hospital, where admission is deemed proper response. More strain on the public purse ...

Better management of current pharmaceuticals would certainly lead to improved physical and fiscal health and hopefully allow more funding for important research into the drugs required in future.

New antibiotics to combat resistant strains of bacteria would have to be a high priority along with publicly funded research to prove the efficiency and safety of some alternative treatments which have high levels of success amongst users.