More than 400 medicines will drop in price from this weekend, saving consumers around $20 each time they head to the pharmacy to pick up their prescriptions for conditions ranging from cholesterol to high blood pressure.

Last year Federal Parliament passed the Government's Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme changes, which included an agreement to cut costs in the production of some of the nation's most commonly prescribed drugs.

Saving to taxpayers per prescription: Leukaemia: $300.69

Leukaemia: $300.69 Crohn's disease: $244.50

Crohn's disease: $244.50 Cardiovascular disease: $143.83

Some medicines reduce in price every year as the patents covering the chemical makeup of the drugs expire.

Among those this year are medications to treat leukaemia and cardiovascular disease.

Health Minister Sussan Ley said more than 400 such medicines were dropping in price, four times the number at the same time last year because of the agreement.

"This is not about [the] Government adding money into the PBS, it's actually about consumers benefitting because the manufacturers of medicines are now being paid less," Ms Ley said.

"Part of our agreement for price reductions now has been the cost of expensive combination medicines that have been priced too highly in the past.

"If you combine two generic molecules, it's not appropriate to call them a brand new medicine — in fact they should reflect the price of their components."

Price drop will help people suffering multiple medical complaints

Ms Ley said it would help the household budgets of people suffering from multiple medical complaints.

"For the number of Australians now who live with chronic and complex disease, and may take several medicines a month, this is really good news," Ms Ley said.

"When it comes to ongoing reductions in price, all drugs are in the spotlight because as they come off patent and they come generic, they all start to reduce in price.

"Those that the Government subsidises on the PBS are especially in the spotlight when it comes to this, because we know that if we can continue to reduce the price that [the] Government pays, we can make room to list more medicines."

Condition Number of patients Number of prescriptions per year Saving High blood pressure/high cholesterol 41,5000 360,000 $23.05 Heart conditions 19,900 149,000 $21.49 Osteoarthritis 259,000 583,000 $7.30 Gastrointestinal disease 546,500 2.5 million $4.51

Editor's note (3/4/16): This story has been amended following updated information from Sussan Ley's office to correct earlier information about the number of drugs which will now be cheaper.