Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their attendance. The first issue about which I am concerned is the profitability of orphan drugs. While I do not have it to hand, a recent article in the Financial Timesshowed a surge in profitability for investors in orphan drugs. Although the ratio of orphan drugs to mainstream drugs is approximately five to 10,0000, there may be a risk that investors will move to invest in orphan drugs and that general drugs for the bulk of the population will be somewhat neglected and progress in treatment of common diseases will be halted. Have the witnesses any comment on that possibility?

Senator Colm Burke mentioned savings in regard to generic versions of drugs. I am a pharmacist by profession. When I qualified 13 or 14 years ago and returned to Ireland from the UK, there were practically no generic drugs available here and pharmacists were precluded from substituting. That has since changed. At the time I qualified, a box of Lipitor cost approximately €110 whereas a generic version of it now costs approximately €10. However, when one compares the saving achieved there to the cost incurred through funding an orphan drug for one person, there is no overall saving. Savings achieved through the use of generic drugs will never compensate for the cost of orphan drugs.

There are huge global variations in the price for hepatitis treatments. How does a company that has produced a drug, trialled it, done all the work on it and spent all the money on it justify the price differences? How can we ask to these companies why it costs one fiftieth of the Irish price in Ethiopia? How can that be managed to the benefit of the Irish people?

I am delighted that people have received Orkambi. Ireland has a unique relationship with cystic fibrosis and a unique solution therefore had to be found. However, the annual cost of Orkambi is approximately €300 million, which is equivalent to the cost of building the new maternity hospital. I may be wrong, but I understand the annual cost of treating patients receiving Orkambi is the same as building a new maternity hospital every year. I am concerned------