The prescribing of every single brand and strength of opioid funded by taxpayers will be reviewed by a PBAC expert committee over the next two months.

The Drug Utilisation Subcommittee (DUSC), which conducts post-marketing reviews for the PBAC, has been commisioned to write up the wide-ranging report.

While terms of reference have yet to be formalised, the aim is to track the use of all PBS-listed opioid analgesics by analysing data that includes patient age groups and the number of individual patients being dispensed multiple scripts long-term.

The results will be assessed at a PBAC meeting, scheduled in March, which could lead to changes to PBS rules on opioid prescribing and dispensing.