The Australian Government introduced the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), a program designed to provide subsidised prescription medication to all Australian citizens.
On February 16, 1944, Senator Fraser introduced the Pharmaceutical Benefits Bill 1944 to the Senate.
The bill was passed by the Curtin Labor government as the Pharmaceutical Benefits Act 1944 as part of a wider plan to create a British-style National Health Service.
The Act was an extension of the similar Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme established in 1919 for Australian servicemen and women who had served in the Boer War and World War I.
The Act provided for free pharmaceuticals, with benefits restricted to medicines listed in the Commonwealth Pharmaceutical Formulary, and only on the presentation of a prescription, written by a registered medical practitioner on an official government form, to a Commonwealth-approved pharmacist.
A Formulary Committee was established with the role of advising the Minister on the composition of the formulary. The committee was a precursor to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee.
