We specialise in the supply of Special Access Scheme (SAS) medicines and have access to a network of Australian importers and also directly source from Europe and the United States where required. If the medicine is not used regularly, it may be difficult to obtain.
The SAS is administered by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and allows individual patients to obtain access to drugs not registered for marketing in Australia. These may include medicines that are available in other countries but have not yet been approved here, or that were approved and have been removed for commercial or other reasons.
Approval to access these medicines is required by law, upon application by a doctor. Access is granted on a case by case basis depending on patient circumstances.
Patients are grouped into two categories for these applications:
Patients that are terminally ill or patients that are seriously ill with life-threatening conditions.
To dispense a drug belonging to this category, no prior approval from the TGA is required, however the pharmacy requires the following:
These are patients that do not fall into Category A as described above. This generally encompasses people suffering from a serious, but not life-threatening illness where the treating doctor is of the opinion that no already registered therapy is likely to cure or adequately control the condition from which the patient is suffering.
To dispense a drug belonging to this category, the pharmacy requires the following:
Further information can be found on the TGA website
https://www.tga.gov.au/form/special-access-scheme
SAS Category A Form