Hon. Mark Butler MP - Press Conference
16 September 2026
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Press Conferences Australian Parliament
16:05 - 19:25
Speaker 4
All right. We're all good? Thanks very much for coming out this morning. We have a very exciting, important announcement around breast cancer treatment. I'm delighted to be joined by Vicky Durston, the head of policy and advocacy for the Breast Cancer Network of Australia, the key peak patient organisation for Australians living with breast cancer.
We're also joined by Jenny from Cancer Nurses, who is a nurse practitioner working in breast oncology, and Katie, as a patient living with metastatic breast cancer, who will talk about her personal experience here. And I really want to thank all three for coming along today. As Australians know so well, breast cancer is the most common form of cancer experienced by Australian women. And although Australia has some of the best survival rates in the world, even breast cancer survivors often need to continue with treatment for years after their primary treatment to deal with the consequences of their cancer and their cancer treatment, but also to suppress certain hormones that will drive cancer cells and raise the risk of a relapse or recurrence. For many, many years now, thousands of Australian women who have survived breast cancer have relied upon a particular hormone suppressant, or GnRH agonist, called Zoladex, sponsored by AstraZeneca.
This is a monthly injection that around 13,500 women take every month, often for years, to reduce that risk of recurrence and to give them confidence that they are going to be able to continue on with life. AstraZeneca, the sponsor of that company, made an announcement some months ago that they intended to withdraw Zoladex from the PBS for this particular, at this particular dose. And that has, I'm sure Vicky and Jenny and particularly Katie will outline, caused enormous anxiety, enormous anxiety among many thousands of Australian women. Over the last few months, we've been working together to find a solution to this. The Breast Cancer Network, I have to express my enormous gratitude, pulled together a round table.
We've been working together to do what we can to ensure security and affordability of an alternative treatment. We scanned the rest of the world and found there is an equivalent treatment called Triptorelin, sponsored by a drug company called Ipsen. We invited that company to make an application to Australia, to our Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, expedited that process, and are able to announce today that this equivalent treatment, Triptorelin, will be available on the PBS from the 1st of October, ensuring that there is no gap in this incredibly important hormone suppressant for Australian women. Without PBS listing, it could be available on the private market, but it would cost about $1,380 per script. It will now be available at affordable PBS prices.
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