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.
Ulipristal acetate
Ulipristal acetate, sold under the brand name Ella among others, is a medication used for emergency birth control and uterine fibroids. As emergency birth control it should be used within 120 hours of sex. For fibroids it may be taken for up to six months. It is taken by mouth.
Common side effects include headache, nausea, feeling tired, and abdominal pain. It should not be used in people who are already pregnant. It is in the selective progesterone receptor modulator (SPRM) class of medications. It works by preventing the effects of progesterone thus stopping ovulation.
Ulipristal acetate was approved for medical use in the United States in 2010. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, the most effective and safe medicines needed in a health system. In the United Kingdom it costs the NHS about 17 pounds per course of emergency birth control of 2015. To improve access, some recommend all who can get pregnant be given a prescription for use if needed.