Dr. Ciara Conlan:

Dr. Barry has spoken about proposing legislation which would mandate, unless there was good reason, the prescription of the biosimilar. He has spoken publicly about our biosimilar use of adalimumab being 2% of market volume whereas it is 80% in Sweden. That is definitely one aspect of the problem with our drugs budget. It does not all have to do with the presence of pharmaceutical industry. Clinicians and patients also need to be educated about the safety of the biosimilar drug and that it will be equivalent to what is currently being used. The fear aspect needs to be taken away. Dr. Barry has great expertise in this area and he will probably speak to that issue. I agree with everything that has been said, particularly about ring-fencing budgets for orphan and rare drugs. In the short term, it is a way to get things onto the market quickly. It will not, however, provide any incentives for the industry to lower prices and they may even rise, in that setting.