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

New medicines - direct-acting antivirals - are now available to treat hepatitis C. These are much better the existing drug treatment, interferon. In possibly up to 95% of cases, these new antiviral drugs can clear the virus entirely. It is really a wonderful advance in modern medicine that we can now cure many patients with hepatitis C. The new drugs are, however, very expensive. My counterpart in France has said she believes they are so expensive that they could - on their own - undermine the future of her country's health system. That is saying a great deal. Obviously, these drugs must be subject to the normal processes in order to ensure that they are cost-effective, etc. However, there is a group of patients whose needs are exceptional. More than 100 patients have been identified as being at risk of irreversible liver damage if they do not receive treatment soon. It is intended to begin treatment within the next few weeks, via an early-access programme, for those patients who have been identified as being in the greatest clinical need. This will require an agreement with the companies that supply the medicine, which are both currently offering different deals in respect of an early-access programme. We will need to assess - very quickly - which deal is the best to accept. The group of patients involved will be treated differently by means of the early-access programme to which I refer because they cannot wait for the normal processes to be followed.