Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

The margin is 17%. If any Deputy can tell me of a market in the world where it costs €600 million in order to get €1 billion of product to the patient, I would be very surprised. It is not credible that getting our drugs, which cost €1 billion on the community side, to our patients should cost €600 million. Some €100 million will be removed from the €600 million. That will facilitate a 7% margin of 5% for their business with 2% profit, which is highly lucrative. In Northern Ireland, after £180,000 the wholesale margin is 4%. In a contract recently awarded by the HSE for the supply of vaccines, I understand the winning company tendered at a margin of 4%. These are margins on which people can make profits but it is not acceptable that taxpayers and patients must pay a hugely inflated price for medicine as a result of the way we remunerate pharmacies.

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