Novartis, Roche Face 50% PBS Price Cut on MS Drugs as Briumvi Triggers Review

For pharmaceutical investors and industry strategists, the Australian PBS review signals intensifying government pressure on specialty drug pricing. Roche's blockbuster Ocrevus and Novartis's Kesimpta face a benchmark re-rate that could erode net pricing significantly, testing the willingness of multinationals to accept lower reimbursements in the Australian market.

The Australian Government is conducting a high-stakes pricing review of two of the most widely used multiple sclerosis (MS) disease-modifying therapies—Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) from Roche and Kesimpta (ofatumumab) from Novartis—threatening their continued subsidized access under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). The review, scheduled for July 2026, stems from the PBS’s reference pricing mechanism, which groups medicines with similar therapeutic effects and sets the reimbursement price based on the lowest-cost drug in the group. The recent PBS listing of Briumvi (ublituximab), a lower-cost anti-CD20 MS therapy from TG Therapeutics, has triggered a potential 40 to 50 percent reduction in the benchmark price that the government would pay for Ocrevus and Kesimpta.

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Without the PBS subsidy, Ocrevus can cost patients up to $33,000 per year, a financial barrier that patient advocates argue would push many Australians out of treatment.

This pricing adjustment could have severe consequences. Without the PBS subsidy, Ocrevus can cost patients up to $33,000 per year, a financial barrier that patient advocates argue would push many Australians out of treatment. Sharlene Brown, an MS patient and director of MS Australia who has depended on Ocrevus for over seven years, emphasized that these drugs are not optional: they enable patients to remain employed, support families, and maintain independence. The threat is not merely individual but systemic—thousands of Australians with MS rely on these medications to prevent relapses and slow disease progression. If manufacturers withdraw from the PBS because the reduced price no longer sustains their business model, patients would be forced to pay out-of-pocket or switch to potentially less effective therapies.