Professor David Henry is a physician and clinical pharmacologist and has an interest in all aspects of medicines used by communities. He is an authority on cost effectiveness in drug selection processes, and was a member of the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) and Chair of the Economics Sub-committee of PBAC 1993-2001. Professor Henry was instrumental in establishing the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) evaluation process now in use. He has worked with the World Health Organization and has expertise in international systems for pricing of therapeutic drugs. He has delivered invited national and international presentations on access to medicines and drug pricing issues and has conducted drug policy issues courses for the WHO, BostonUniversityand AusAid. During the last decade, in addition to his academic commitments, he has worked continuously as an internal medicine specialist and clinical toxicologist in the Newcastle region of New South Wales. He was Chair of the Medical Staff Council at the Mater Hospital in Newcastle, New South Wales.
Professor Henry is currently working collaboratively with Professor Peter Drahos and Dr. Thomas Faunce at The Australian National University on an Australian Research Council-funded project to investigate the impact of international trade agreements, including the recent US-Australia Free Trade Agreement on the regulation of and access to medicines in Australia. He also has a continuing interest in the portrayal of illness and treatment by the media. Professor Henry established a media monitoring web site http://www.mediadoctor.org.au/ and assisted in the establishment of the Canadian sister site http://www.mediadoctor.ca/.
