Nutritional Products Working Party (NPWP)
Page last updated: 24 November 2025
The Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) constituted the Nutritional Products Working Party (NPWP) as a group who hold expert knowledge about nutritional products and medicinal foods (e.g. special infant oral formula and food substitutes to treat inborn errors of metabolism). They advise the PBAC on matters relating to the effectiveness and use of therapeutic foods and nutritional products.
The NPWP provides advice to the PBAC on clinical and financial matters found in submissions to list nutritional products on the PBS, as well as any matters relating to utilisation of PBS-listed nutritional products referred to them by the PBAC. The NPWP may also consider issues from submissions for nutritional products deferred or not recommended by the PBAC.
Current Members
Professor Jennifer Firman AM (Chair) - General Practice
Professor Jennifer Firman AM (MBBS, FRACGP) is the current Chair of the Nutritional Products Working Party (NPWP) of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) and a practicing General Practitioner with an extensive career as a uniformed medical officer in the Australian Defence Force. She formerly held the role of the Chief Health Officer at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. She has worked on communicable disease threats and health emergencies at the federal health department and provided clinical advice in support of veterans. Professor Firman has chaired or been a member of committees on mental health, general practice, infection control, communicable disease and antimicrobial resistance. She is a member of the Medical Services Advisory Committee PICO Advisory Subcommittee. Professor Firman provides expertise in general practice and broad health system knowledge.
Ms Aoife Elliot - Dietetics
Ms Aoife Elliot (DipNutDiet, BSc(Nutr&Diet)(Hons)) is a Consultant Dietitian at the Department of Dietitian & Food Services, Children’s Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service. She has a special interest in inborn errors of metabolism, clinical redesign and leadership. She has previous experience as Secretary for the Australasian Society for Inborn Errors of Metabolism within the Human Genetics Society of Australasia. Ms Elliot provides expertise as a consultant dietitian.
Ms Louise Healy - Consumer Member
Ms Louise Healy (BA, PGDip Psych) is an Education and Advocacy Manager at Rare Voices Australia and Vice President of the Metabolic Dietary Disorders Association (voluntary). She brings a consumer perspective to the committee through her experience as an advocate and health consumer representative in areas including access to treatment, patient support programs, and genetic and genomic research. Ms Healy is a current member of the Queensland Newborn Blood Spot Screening Advisory group. She has gained health technology assessment (HTA) experience through being a consumer representative on the expert advisory group on the establishment of Genomics Australia and a member of the HTA Conversations for Change Advisory Group. She has represented the patient group at several Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) stakeholder meetings for specific submissions and has contributed to leading a collective patient-organisation response to the HTA Review Recommendations. Ms Healy provides expertise in the consumer perspective.
Associate Professor Fiona Mackie - Paediatric Nephrology
Associate Professor Fiona Mackie (MBBS, PhD, FRACP) was a Senior Consultant Paediatric Nephrologist at Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick and University of New South Wales (UNSW) for 25 years, as well as a Conjoint Associate Professor at UNSW. She is currently in clinical practice in Canberra. She has previous relevant committee experience, including as Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Paediatric Nephrology Association, Secretary of the International Pediatric Nephrology Association and Secretary of the Transplantation Society of Australia and New Zealand. Associate Professor Mackie provides expertise in the field of paediatric medicine, nephrology and transplantation.
Ms Natalie Tasker - Paediatric Medicine and Pharmacology
Ms Natalie Tasker (BPharm, MClinMed(LMgt)) is the Director of Pharmacy at Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Hospital, Brisbane. Her clinical areas of interest are paediatrics, medication safety and quality use of medicines, pharmacoeconomics, environmental sustainability in healthcare and transplant medicine. She is a member of the Queensland Health Medicines Advisory Committee, both the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Hospital and Metro South Health Hospital Health Service’s Medicines Management Committees. She has previously worked within the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing within the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) Secretariat. Ms Tasker provides expertise in the field of paediatric medicine, pharmacy and pharmacology.
Ms Sue (Susan) Thompson - Paediatric Dietetics
Ms Sue Thompson (BSc(Nutr)(Hons), AdvAPD) has recently retired from being a Clinical Specialist Dietitian in the Genetic Metabolic Disorders Service at The Children’s Hospital Westmead. Her clinical interests are Paediatric Dietetics. She is a member Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network Research Ethics Committee and has previous committee experience as Chairperson Australasian Society for Inborn errors of Metabolism. Ms Thompson provides expertise in the field of paediatric dietetics.
