Patient and drug company pressure to allow multiple cancer listings to be made at once for checkpoint inhibitors seems unlikely to be realised, with the release of a new PBAC report.

Supporters of the move say it will make the process of listing a drug on the PBS more efficient, giving patients, particularly those with rare cancers, access to potentially effective treatments.

However, after examining the implications of allowing programmed death (ligand)-1 (PD-(L)1) checkpoint inhibitors to be subsidised for more than one cancer indication at one time, the PBAC reports five key considerations.

Its report prepared for the Federal Minister for Health in December 2018, which was published last week, asks Greg Hunt to consider the implications of broadening indications for PD-(L)1 therapies: