Peak body for affordable medicines welcomes new board members at a pivotal time for the health budget and medicine policy reforms

At a time of intense medicine policy reform, two new representatives have been welcomed to the GBMA Board.

GBMA’s Independent Chair, Professor Jane Halton AO PSM and CEO, Ms Marnie Peterson, welcomed Mr Clint Holland and Ms Hayley Tamborini, noting that the board additions came at a time where the industry is experiencing significant policy shift, alongside the changing landscape of medicines.

Ms Halton remarked the two board members joined the GBMA board at a dynamic time in medicine policy and against the rising cost of living for Australian patients and their families.

“The mission critical aim of the GBMA board, is shared with the Government and that is to provide fiscal relief to a stretched health budget and ensure all Australians have access to the affordable medicines they need, when they need them,” Professor Halton said.

Mr Holland is the new Country Head of Sandoz ANZ and Ms Tamborini is the Executive General Manager, Pharmaceuticals at Arrotex.

A former pharmacist, Ms Tamborini leads the strategic direction of the Arrotex prescription business, specialty brands portfolio and biologics division. Recently, this has expanded to include a new Medical Division of 50 sales professionals collaborating with prescribers, in both primary and secondary care settings.

Ms Tamborini said she was committed to working with her GBMA board colleagues to ensure the focus continues to remain on policies that support the accelerated and continued uptake of generics and biosimilars.

“We need to drive further investment in the development of generic and biosimilar medicines,” Ms Tamborini said. “Timely access to medicines is critically important to the health of all Australians.

Our industry has spent years building capabilities to ensure these medicines can be accessed by Australian patients and their health care providers.  It is therefore critical that we ensure policies have the intended effect of driving uptake of, and access to, these affordable medicines.”

With a strong commercial background and stepping into his new role at Sandoz and the GBMA, Mr Holland said he was passionate about delivering world class health care that is affordable and accessible to all Australians.

With the highly anticipated separation from Novartis this year, it is clear that 2023 will be a big year of positive change for the company and for the affordable medicines industry.

“For the sake of our overwhelmed health budget, never before has it been so important to drive more biosimilar medicines onto the PBS,” said Mr Holland.

Generic and biosimilar medicines provide a foundation for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). By volume, the affordable medicines industry supply Australian patients over 70% of PBS medicines whilst representing less than 30% in costs to taxpayers.

“Generic and biosimilar medicines are at the epicentre of a sustainable PBS, with increased uptake needed if we want to return to a balanced health budget,” Professor Halton added.

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