MEDIA RELEASE
January 2, 2026
North Queensland Mother in Last-ditch Bid to Save Her Son’s Life as PBS Delays Threaten Access to Proven Cancer Drug
A North Queensland mother has launched a last‑ditch effort to keep her son alive, as delays to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) listing of a proven targeted therapy for medullary thyroid cancer risk cutting off the medicine he needs to survive.
Federal Member for Herbert Phillip Thompson OAM today called on the Minister for Health to urgently list selpercatinib (Retevmo/Retsevmo) on the PBS and to put in place an interim access arrangement.
“I have written to Health Minister, The Hon Mark Butler MP calling for urgent action on this failure. The PBS was built on a simple principle: access based on medical need, not personal wealth. Timely access to targeted therapies is essential. I’m calling on the Minister to expedite the listing and ensure no current patient is forced off treatment,” Mr. Thompson said.
“No Australian should be priced out of a medicine that is keeping them alive. Selpercatinib is working for patients with medullary thyroid cancer where surgery, chemo and radiation are ineffective.
“We need an urgent PBS listing—and a bridging arrangement with the sponsor—so patients aren’t abandoned while paperwork is finalised.”
Clinton James was first diagnosed with medullary thyroid cancer in 2016.
The father of three’s cancer has since spread throughout his body, with options of radiation, chemotherapy and surgery now exhausted.
In June of 2024 he was given a lifeline, when American based pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly agreed to supply him with Selpercatinib under compassionate grounds, until the medication was placed on the PBS scheme, which the Labor Federal Government had indicated would occur by March 2025.
“Selpercatinib has changed my prognosis from one of imminent death to the possibility of living a full life and getting the opportunity to see my children grow up,” Mr James said.
“To now have that threatened by Government inaction is beyond devastating to me and the other Australians living with this horrific cancer. We are staring down the barrel of our lives being cut short by a poor decision that could be changed with the stroke of a pen.
“My specialist, Professor Bruce Robinson of the Kolling Institute, has written to the Health Minister asking for help, but our pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Without this drug, I won’t survive. I just want the chance to keep being a dad.”
The annual cost for patients to access Selpercatinib privately is at least $32,000.
The clinical trial was concluded two years ago, proving the drug is effective in treating medullary thyroid cancer.
Debra Gibson says watching her son given a new lease of life over the past 12 months has been miraculous.
“To now have that ripped out from under us has absolutely devastated our family,” Mrs Gibson said.
“If Selpercatinib is taken away, my three grandchildren will lose their dad. I beg the Health Minister to help save my son’s life. Please, list it on the PBS as a priority and don’t let cost decide who lives or dies.”
ENDS
