Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do not know if "prescriptionable" is a word. It is now and will be forever recorded as such. My understanding is that it is up to any company to apply for market authorisation and to apply to be added to the reimbursement list. I think this would be the best solution to this. We have well established processes, clinical governance, safety reviews and contract negotiations in place, which work very well. In fact, the reason we are in this situation is because Cariban is not a licensed product and this means there was no normal mechanism to make this drug freely available. We cannot compel the company to do this. Indeed, we cannot compel any of the other companies, which the Deputy referred to, that have other products which are also seen to be very good to do this either. What we can do is to ask that there be engagement from the HSE with these companies to see if they would like to begin the process. This is certainly something I would support.

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