Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan for raising this important issue. I very much agree with her that the cost of new medicines is extremely high. That is the case across the world. Notwithstanding that, so far this year - it is only May - the HSE has approved 23 new medicines for use in this country and is considering a number of other applications. One of the most effective things we can do is co-operate with other countries when it comes to the procurement of new medicines. In the past year or so, we formed an alliance with Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Austria - the BeNeLuxA initiative. In fact, there is a meeting taking place in Dublin today involving health officials from all five countries. The purpose of the initiative is so that all five countries can co-operate in the context of scanning the horizon for new developments and new medicines, sharing information on effectiveness and cost and, potentially, tendering or procuring as a group in the future in order that we get a better price for our taxpayers and citizens.

There should be a single process at EU level for recommending whether new medicines are reimbursed. We already have the European Medicines Agency, which can license medicines for use across the European Union but does not have a role in determining whether they should be reimbursed or at what cost. Sometimes some of the drug companies play countries off against each other. It is up to countries to stop them from doing this and that is where, at a European level, we should have a new initiative moving beyond an EU-wide licensing regime to an EU-wide regime for determining which medicines should be reimbursed and what is a fair price for health systems to pay.

I have not seen the Italian resolution the Deputy mentioned. I will ask the Minister for Health to contact her directly in the context of indicating whether we are in a position to support it. I absolutely agree that we need to make better use of biosimilars and that when drugs come off patent, we should be using the generics rather than the branded items. Those savings that can be created should be retained in the budget to fund new medicines.

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