Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

This is an issue the Government and the new politics urgently has to do something about. The Minister is aware that in the past few weeks, we have had two instances where people who are ill, often with life-threatening illnesses or seriously disabling illnesses, are not able to access certain drugs because of price, rather than the question of their medical efficacy or how they could help people who are sick, suffering or, in some cases, in life-threatening situations.

That is just not acceptable.

Orkambi was mentioned earlier today in the case of sufferers of cystic fibrosis, of which there is a very high instance in this country. The National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics stated it should not be funded at "the submitted price"; therefore, it is price which determines whether ill people will receive a drug that could make a real difference to their health and quality of life. Last week we had the issue of the availability of pembro for those with melanoma. There has now been movement on this issue, but there had to be a fight over it and it is only occurring because there was an outcry. Last year, with others, I raised the issue of the availability of Fampyra. I had received representations from people with MS, whom this drug assisted in being able to physically walk, but it was not available for them because of price.

It is utterly obscene - that is not too strong a word to use - that the profit line of incredibly profitable big pharma corporations determines whether people will receive life-saving medicines or drugs or medicines that could make an extraordinary difference to their quality of life. Another example is Harvoni, a drug for sufferers of hepatitis C. This issue has been brought to my attention in the past week or two and I do not know whether it has appeared in the public debate. It highlights another aspect of the debate. The cost of Harvoni here is 45 times higher than in Australia because of where we source it and the profiteering of the company which produces it. There are versions of these drugs which are exactly the same, but we pay top dollar,= and because of the price, we either pay too much or are not willing to pay the money.

This raises another issue. To what extent is the State looking for value for money and the cheapest versions of these drugs? We have advocated as our policy that there be a State pharmacy, the responsibility of which would be to find the cheapest versions of these drugs or else - this is important as I said earlier - we should produce them ourselves. There is no reason we could not do this. We have thousands of people and in some areas we are producing generic and much cheaper versions of drugs. We should expand this substantially, but there has been no serious push to do so.

Some of the price contrasts are absolutely extraordinary. In the United Kingdom 16 paracetamol tablets coss 35 cent. In Boots in Ireland they cost 99 cent, almost three times as much, and in Tesco, €1.55. I am not sure how much the State pays, but the point is it is an absolutely tiny fraction of the cost, even in the United Kingdom for paracetamol. In Ireland, in the case of Harvoni which I mentioned, the cost is €45,000 for a course of 12 tablets. From the hepatitis C buyers club in Australia the cost €1,000 for the same course. This is crazy stuff. I appeal to the Government and the Minister of State. This is an issue we must address as a matter of urgency for the sake of sick and vulnerable people and to achieve value for money for the State which spends €2 billion a year on medicines via the HSE.

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