Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I do not have a note on it to hand, but I have some knowledge, given that the matter has been in the public domain and from discussions I have had with the Minister for Health about it. It is the policy of the Government to endeavour to ensure patients in Ireland will have access to new medicines. That has been our policy for a very long time, but we also have a duty to make sure medicines are effective and that the price taxpayers pay for them is reasonable in order that more people can be treated and more services made available to patients who need them. It has been set out in legislation for quite some time that the Government does not decide on which medicines should be reimbursed. That is decided by the HSE's national drugs committee which takes the advice of the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics. There is expert advice which is put together by doctors, pharmacologists and economists - people who know about these things - who pass it on to the HSE's national drugs committee which then makes a decision on whether the cost of a medicine should be reimbursed. As the Deputy will be aware, decision on reimbursement is not the same as a decision on licensing. That is the process involved.

We have had some interesting discussions in recent weeks on when politicians should and should not intervene in a legal or statutory process. This is a statutory process, of which the Deputy will be aware, because the legislation was passed by the Oireachtas to set up the system the way it is. The experts in the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics give advice and the HSE's national drugs committee decides. That is how it is done, but that is not to say Ministers cannot request that meetings take place. I will certainly speak to the Minister and ask him to encourage the company to engage with the committee. That would be the right course of action to take.

One very sorry feature of this affair is the way the manufacturer behaved. When a patient is put on a new drug, either as part of a trial or a compassionate programme, it is standard practice for companies not to withdraw the medicine. While a decision might be made not to extend it to new groups or new patients because of efficacy or the high cost involved, it has been standard practice for a very long time for companies to allow patients already on a medicine to continue to receive it. The company in question has behaved very badly and unethically in not providing the medicine for patients already on it. I hope the Deputy will join with me in echoing that sentiment.

See this speech in context