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

The House made the right decision in 2013 to ensure decisions on which medicines are licensed or reimbursed are not political decisions. I do not believe they should be political decisions. We decided as a House on a cross-party basis in 2013 to allow independent pharmacologists, doctors and economists to make these decisions. A decision is made by the HSE's national drugs committee on the advice of the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics. So far, 23 new medicines have been licensed for reimbursement this year but Spinraza is not yet one of them. I understand the applicant has made a revised proposal. The applicant was not willing to accept the fair price proposed by the HSE and has made further representations. The HSE is currently considering that information. I hear what the Deputy is saying, however. Very often in Ireland, we fund medicines such as Orkambi long before other countries. The case in question is an anomaly in the sense that we are one of only two countries in the European Union that is not funding the drug. This appears to me to be anomalous and I am keen to see this resolved as soon as possible.

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