Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his initiative in bringing forward this legislation. The whole area of rare diseases and orphan drugs is an important one, and there has been significant investment in research at European Union level under the Horizon programmes. There is a need here in terms of our pricing frameworks to facilitate the research and development that goes into orphan drugs in particular, which are very important for rare diseases but ordinarily would not command the necessary critical mass to facilitate the kind of investment that goes into conventional drugs. This legislation will facilitate a very important debate on this but also follow-through from Government. We will work with the Deputy and Senators Byrne and O’Loughlin on this initiative.

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