John Brassil (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming here. From what I can gather, Access to Medicines Ireland is a group of concerned medical professionals who are trying to do something about the spiralling cost of drugs with a focus on the companies that produce the drugs and their associated research and development. Do the witnesses know the cost, or is it available, of developing a drug all the way from a molecule to a product that is available on the shelf? Is there an ability to work back from that and see what Governments could do?

I might be speaking for myself. Perhaps I understand that what the witnesses would like to see is that governments would invest in research and development and, when a breakthrough is made, the company in question would charge €50,000 per treatment instead of €500,000 and the payback is that the investment is made up-front. The witnesses can correct me if I am misunderstanding what they are trying to do. We all want to achieve something. Last week, people with spinal muscular atrophy who are trying to get Spinraza over the line appeared before us. The BeNeLuxA model, which is welcomed by the witnesses, is mentioned. To my knowledge, Spinraza is available in the other three countries but not here. How do we explain that one away? We will start with that issue.