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.
Fluticasone
Fluticasone is a synthetic glucocorticoid which is used to treat nasal symptoms. Both the furoate and propanoate esters, fluticasone furoate and fluticasone propionate, are also used as topical anti-inflammatories and inhaled corticosteroids, and are used much more commonly in comparison.
In the United States the wholesale cost per spray is about 0.33 USD as of 2018. In 2016 it was the 16th most prescribed medication in the United States with more than 29 million prescriptions.