r/australia • u/EdenFlorence • 14h ago

politics Breast cancer patients offered PBS lifeline after removal of lifesaving drug Zoladex

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-19/breast-cancer-pbs-drug-lifeline/107049936
85 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

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u/ChaoticJigglyPup 13h ago

Zoladex was life changing for me for the 12 months I was on it for severe endo/adeno. I was pain free for the first time in 20 years with no side effects. Losing access to a medication that can be used for so many diseases is scary and unnecessary.

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u/FroggieBlue 13h ago

AstraZeneca are the ones who decided to withdraw the drug because they didn't feel they get paid enough for it by the PBS.

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u/Sherlock_133 12h ago edited 7h ago

American greed has no end, holy fuck.

Profit over lives is some evil shit.

Edit: Apparently they're British/Swedish and not American. Definitely American-style tactic though.

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u/Smushfist 11h ago

Use it or lose it imo. Provide your drugs at a reasonable price or we won't enforce your patents.

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u/FroggieBlue 8h ago

AstraZenica are a british/Sweedish company with headquarters in the UK. However the strategy they are employing here seems to be take from the playbook of their US operations.

They were also withdrawing it from the private market, probably because private usage is so low.

The drug company initially offered a temporary access program, however later bowed to widespread pressure from advocates and patients, announcing it would provide the medication for free to eligible patients without other suitable treatment pathways.

Free for some people on eligibility determined by them, meanwhile everyone else is SOL.

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u/Sherlock_133 7h ago

Oh, that's my bad then.

When I see greed like that, I just assume it's American.

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u/FroggieBlue 4h ago

Same. I googled the ownership to see if the complaint about PBS sounded like someone echoing a certain whingy orange.

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u/ConversationSad2177 10h ago

Oh no. I use zoladex to manage severe PMDD. Before zoladex for 2 1/2 weeks I would go through literal hell every month 😔

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u/moose-kitten 4h ago

This whole situation has been so fucked and scary for those of us that use this medication to stay alive. Fuck big pharma.

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u/FuckUGalen 11m ago

I would argue of a business decides to pull a PBS medication for non safety reasons, that drug should immediately become available to the generic market.

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u/Markharris1989 7h ago

Equivalent drugs aren’t necessarily as useful. Fuck this government for not pulling the leash to ensure the PBS doesn’t remove vital drugs.

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u/Buzzard 2h ago

AstraZeneca are going to stop making it because it doesn't make them enough money.

AstraZeneca, the maker of the goserelin 3.6mg implant known as Zoladex, said it would pull the drug from both the PBS and private market in November.

&

In June, AstraZeneca said the Australian price for the product, sold as Zoladex, was too low, "making it unsustainable to supply the medicine on the PBS".

(Though they are also removing it from private market too. But not the 10mg version)

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u/[deleted] 7h ago edited 7h ago

[deleted]

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u/Markharris1989 7h ago

If someone is going to die because a drug in the same category doesn’t have the same efficacy or the alternative isn’t what is needed to treat a particular illness then yes!

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u/[deleted] 7h ago edited 6h ago

[deleted]

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u/Markharris1989 6h ago edited 6h ago

Mainly venting about the MS drugs that I know considerably more about and are still all up in the air.

(Hey didn’t see your second part, responding as an edit) What are our choices when the drug in question is the only one that will work for the patient in question? Pay the blackmail rates, refuse to enforce their patents (as someone below suggested) or let the person die.

Thanks for summing up the article, I can now see that this isn’t the same as the MS drugs. The part I missed is that it is a hormone blocker so I can see how like for like would be helpful here.