A Shorten Labor Government will help more patients access game changing clinical trials, with a $26 million investment in the future of clinical trials in Australia.

Clinical trials help patients access better care now, and they help strengthen our health care system into the future. 
 
Clinical trials are the only way we can add to our cancer and disease fighting arsenal. It is the process in which new cutting edge drugs and treatments are run through their paces to change the lives of patients in the future. 
 
There are currently many thousands of patients participating in hundreds of clinical trials around the country – with patients benefiting from access to cutting edge drugs, receiving treatments designed to improve their outcomes. 
 
This also makes our health system stronger by helping GPs, nurses, surgeons and other health professionals understand what works, and how they can use it.
 
That’s why a Shorten Labor Government will invest $26 million over four years to make sure as many Australians as possible can access trials that can improve the lives of patients.
 
Labor will invest in the amazing work of the Australian Clinical Trials Alliance, including:
 

• $12 million to support two research projects – with at least one focused on cancer – to help enhance Australia’s role as a world leader in clinical trials. These projects will look at the ways we can make accessing clinical trials faster and easier, as much as possible embedding trials into routine health care.

• $10 million to provide more support for existing Clinical Trial Coordinating Centres – with so much complexity in available treatment options for patients, greater support is required for trial centres that can support clinicians in designing trials that address clinically important questions and make sure that patients are getting the best care possible.

• $4 million to help ensure that results from clinical trials are quickly implemented and the importance of clinical trials in a learning health care system is a focus of all health care.

 
Clinical trials are integral to the ongoing war against cancer – a fight that one in two Australians aged under 85 will face.
 
Investing in clinical trials will be critical to improving treatment for people with cancer and making sure Australians access the best drugs and best treatments possible.
 
This investment in cutting edge medicine is part of Labor’s Medicare Cancer Plan – a plan to make sure it is your Medicare card, not your credit card, that determines your access to health care.
 
Our Medicare Cancer Plan will deliver cheaper cancer scans, cheaper cancer specialist consultations and cheaper cancer medicines. 
 
The Medicare Cancer Plan will cover an additional 2,000 appointments a day – three million specialist consults with no out-of-pocket costs. 
 
For people who need a cancer scan – every MRI machine, in every postcode, will be eligible for Medicare. 
 
For CT scans, X-Rays, mammograms, PET scans – this plan will cut out-of-pocket costs and provide up to six million free scans.
 
We can pay for our plan because we are making multinationals pay their fair share and closing tax loopholes used by the top end of town.
 
We’re prioritising health and hospitals – making sure Australians have access to the best medicines and care, because we’d rather have the world’s best health system not the world’s best tax loopholes.
 
Only Labor will deliver the most important investment in Medicare since it was introduced by Bob Hawke, and make sure Australians have access to cutting edge medicines and treatments.