Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
Certain medications listed on the PBS are available only for specific therapeutic indications or to patients meeting specific criteria where the PBAC has deemed that the cost-benefit analysis is favourable only in those indications/patients. These are noted as "restricted benefits" on the Schedule. Medicare Australia places the onus of policing restricted benefits on the prescribers themselves and the pharmacists dispensing (unless the listing is also 'Authority Required'). For example, the COX-2 inhibitor celecoxib is listed on the PBS as a restricted benefit for the symptomatic treatment of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Prescribers using celecoxib for other indications are expected to indicate "non-PBS" on the prescription, and/or the pharmacist dispensing the celecoxib should charge the patient the full cost.
Management of multiple sclerosis
There are no official guidelines yet on the use of disease-modifying oral treatments due to their recent development. While some believe that they will probably reduce the usage of first-line treatments the long-term safety of interferons and glatiramer acetate will probably slow this trend. It has been recommended that at the moment oral treatments should be mainly offered in those cases where patients do not use existing treatments due to needle phobia or other reasons such as perceived inefficacy of interferons and glatiramer acetate. They could also be used in patients taking natalizumab who have developed JC virus antibodies and are therefore at an increased risk of PML. Dimethyl fumarate is potentially one of the most interesting oral drugs due to the long term data from use in psoriasis which points towards a very good safety profile.