CANBERRA: The Australian federal government will not make changes to its subsidization scheme for medications amid tariff pressure from the US administration, said Mark Butler, the health minister, on Friday.
Butler told Seven Network television that Australia will not negotiate with the United States on the "fundamentals" of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), under which the federal government subsidizes the cost of prescription medicines, Xinhua news agency reported.
"We keep sending this clearest of possible messages to the US because we know they get the big drug companies in their ear trying to unpick the PBS here in Australia and equivalent schemes in other countries around the world. We are not negotiating about those fundamentals, " he said.
Butler was speaking after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday imposing a 100 per cent tariff on imports of certain patented pharmaceuticals.