butters

There’s a good explainer article here: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/22/us-pharma-trump-australia-pbs-explainer

It all came up in the tariff negotiations - the PBS in Australia means US drug companies don’t make enough money and/or US citizens are paying more for drugs than Australians.

Big pharma in the US claims Australians aren’t paying enough for medicines, considering the billions they pour into research and development, and there are too many delays in getting drug approvals.

PhRMA has asked the Trump administration to put Australia on a “watch list” and wants it to push for change, saying Australia has set the bar too high on cost effectiveness. Australia’s price reductions and “restrictive subsidy caps” meant prices were too low to support investment in innovation, it claims. There are also too many delays in approval processes, it says, adding that the PBS continues to list generic products without the patent owner’s consent.

Best of luck to him! Hope this goes far and wide.

Kmart would probably be the cheapest. I still use my Kmart microwave and blender 5 years on. If you’re looking for bigger appliances I’ve always had good service and delivery from Appliances Online.

Was just thinking… you know how like some ludicrous % of insect species have died out, maybe it’s bacteria as well. So maybe our gut biomes are deficient in strains that used to be abundant. 🧐

Yeah ham when I grew up was the processed stuff formed into logs. Devon? Lovely on a sandwich with tomato sauce but I have no idea what was in it!