Professor Michael Barry:

It is interesting. One may have thought it would not be pleasant but it was very positive. We got many calls from people who said they looked at their panel of patients and made the appropriate changes. We have seen over 1,150 GPs at this stage and we are getting a positive response from them about prescribing matters. The Irish College of General Practitioners has been excellent in facilitating this. It should come as a reassurance. We are monitoring these and are also monitoring trends in products that may not cost a lot. They suddenly come onto our radar and we then decide whether we need to look at them more carefully, and maybe subject them to health technology assessment. We are looking at it, therefore. It has always been my aim to have an ongoing scrutiny of the pricing and reimbursement of medicines. That is what we are doing now.