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.
Janus kinase 3 inhibitor
The only indication for a JAK3 inhibitor at the moment, rheumatoid arthritis, is for the non-selective JAK1/JAK3 inhibitor Tofacitinib. Other indications like psoriasis, alopecia areata and ulcerative colitis are in clinical trials. Cytokines have an important role in autoimmune diseases and as the common γ chain cytokines interleukin IL-2, IL-4, IL-7, IL-9, IL-15, and IL-21 signal via JAK3, the inhibition of JAK3 and blocking of the signaling of these cytokines could affect many immune diseases and lead to development of new effective immunosuppressive drugs.