Imbruvica for leukaemia patients to be added to PBS, Malcom Turnbull says

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull meets with cancer patients at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. Source: AAP

Several thousand Australians with severe forms of leukaemia will now have access to a life saving treatment.

The new drug has been added to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, dramatically cutting the cost

Conventional treatment failed to stop the disease progressing and he was running out of options.  

But then he joined a clinical trial for a new drug called ImbruvicaUnder the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme the cost of treatment drops from $100,000 a year to less than $500.

Leukaemia Foundation chief executive Bill Petch says its taken many years to get to that point.

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