Three Industry Events: Insights from Canberra

Insights from Tash Silkin, Associate Director, Cube.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend three events in the Australian Parliament in Canberra, each focused on different aspects of health policy, medicines access and the role of innovation in Australia.

Aside from all the interesting medicines discussions – and having spent the past 10 years organising and attending events in the UK Parliament – I really enjoyed exploring the Australian parliament, observing the similarities and differences. Plus, taking the flight from Sydney to Canberra, which is only 35 minutes but on a tiny, propeller plane! Looking forward to many more engaging events with the industry, Anne-Marie Sparrow and Cube.

CanForum 25

CanForum25 saw the launch of Rare Cancers Australia latest report ‘Now it’s personal: Access and equity for all’ which clearly makes the case for all Australian’s being able to access life-saving care, no matter how rare their cancer.

What especially stood out to me was the stories of those with lived experience such as Natalie Willacy who is paying out-of-pocket for a personalised treatment as that treatment is not currently reimbursed for her specific type of rare cancer. She explained that, if her cancer was located only 14 centimeters away from her tumour site, she would be eligible for reimbursed treatment on the PBS. Whilst her cancer is rare, her story is not, bringing home the importance of action on the Australia’s HTA review.

Horizon Scanning: Medicines of Tomorrow

Horizon Scanning: Medicines of Tomorrow hosted by Medicines Australia in partnership with the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, featured a deep dive into Australia’s journey to a more structured approach to horizon scanning for innovative technologies, including radioligand therapies, mRNA ‘cancer vaccines’ and genomic profiling for cancer.

It was also nice to hear from Genomics England on the progress made over the past 10 years to embed genomics into routine care in the NHS and how Australia can benefit from those lessons.

PharmAus 2025

PharmAus 2025, also hosted by Medicines Australia, saw the Minister for Health and Ageing, Disability and the NDIS, Mark Butler, mark 12 months since the HTA Review report was launched, with an announcement of more reviews. The event should act as a clear reminder to Government that action on the HTA Review recommendations is urgently needed, so patients can access lifesaving treatments quicker. In the words of Health department secretary, Blair Comley, we need ‘more doing, less reviewing‘.

Insert very excited and necessary first photo outside of Parliament