Australia ranks at the bottom third when it comes to patient access and public coverage of new medicines in industrialised countries as shown in a new report.

The Rx&D International Report on Access to Medicines 2009-10 ranks Australia 23rd out of 31 OECD countries in terms of expenditure on medicines as a proportion of GDP.

"In essence this report measures the willingness of governments to pay for new innovative pharmaceuticals and Australia doesn't stack up too well," said Dr. Brendan Shaw, Chief Executive of Medicines Australia.

"I imagine many Australians will be surprised and disappointed by these findings. It is quite confronting that Australia underspends the broader OECD on healthcare and innovative medicines. We assume that public funding of healthcare in Australia is high by global standards"

Dr Shaw said Australia is falling behind other countries in making innovative medicines available to patients.

"This report challenges policy makers in Australia to seriously rethink the allocation of the public healthcare dollar."

The report also revealed that Australia ranks 24th out of 30 countries in terms of government's share of national healthcare expenditures. It ranks 19th out of 29 in terms of willingness to reimburse new medicines, with 60% reimbursement of the 150 medicines reviewed in the study, as compared with the OECD average of 64 per cent.

It was also found that the proportion of first-in-class medicines included in the study that were subsidised in Australia is only 52% compared with an OECD average of 65 per cent, giving Australia the rank 20th out of 29, in the area. In terms of medicines used for cancer, Australia ranks 20th out of 29 countries when looking at the number of medicines that are subsidised.

The Rx&D International Report on Access to Medicines 2009-10 was commissioned by Rx&D, the Canadian research-based medicines industry association.