Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. It is very important that we have a debate on this matter because it is a very important issue, where progress has been made in the past few years but we still have further progress to make. My colleague, Senator Ned O'Sullivan, and the Minister of State have highlighted that there has been an increase in the number of people diagnosed in the past 12 months, in particular in 2016. The number of cases in 2016 was 512, which is up from 485 in 2015. I saw figures up to June 2017, which would indicate that the figure of 512 may be exceeded in 2017. I suppose we need to highlight the issue and make people aware of the risk. The one good side, to which my colleague referred, is that life expectancy has totally changed in the sense that the expectancy of a 20 year old, who would have started treatment back in 2008, has a life expectancy of up to 76 years. That is a significant change from where we were at.

From the figures on diagnosis, 50% of the people diagnosed were from outside of Ireland. That is an issue in a multicultural society. If one considers that there are 800,000 people living in this country who were not born here. A change of population will always bring new challenges. I believe we are dealing with that in an appropriate way.

I had the privilege of going to Nigeria when I was Lord Mayor of Cork in 2003. There were more than 250,000 people living in appalling conditions in shanty towns just outside Nairobi. At that time more than 40% of the residents in that town had HIV. The problem was that a large number of people were not surviving beyond their early 30s. At that time there were more than 700,000 children in the country where both parents had died. That was the challenges that the country had. Much progress has been made in all of those countries in the past few years, in the same way that progress has been made here in Ireland.

I wish to raise the issue of the drug Truvada, by a company called Gilead Sciences Inc. This drug is proving to be very effective. It is available in Ireland in pharmacies, but it costs €400 per month. It is not available under the treatment purchase fund. The members of Young Fine Gael had a meeting with the Minister of State in September and they raised this issue. They have raised this issue on a number of occasions in the past 12 months. My understanding is the company has applied for the drug to be included under the drugs refund scheme. There is a fast track process for any drugs that is coming on the market, where it can be examined by the appropriate authorities in the HSE. They decided, detailed in a letter of 18 September, that a full pharmaceutical economic evaluation be undertaken of this drug. What I am concerned about is that this process may take anything up to six months.

The 90 day clock has started to run and the company obviously has to provide very detailed analysis to the pharmaceutical economics evaluation authorities. I have met a number of drug companies in the past two years, where they are asked for all the documentation. They may have to submit a dossier of up to 300 or 400 pages for it to stand up to scrutiny. I do not understand that, in particular where this drug has already received approval from the European Medicines Agency. We should try to fast track the process because the benefits are there. The evidence has already been established that this drug is effective in preventing infection. I am concerned that it has not been available. The people most at risk are those whose partners already have HIV. It is important that this drug would be made available at the earliest possible date.I ask that the matter is taken up with the Department so we can fast-track the process to see whether it is economically a good decision. All the evidence is already there. It can help people and help to make sure those who are likely to be exposed can be dealt with and provided the necessary treatment in a timely manner.