Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 257: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if she will make a drug (details supplied) available on the GMS in order that general practitioners may give it to high-risk patients pending a decision on a national vaccine programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3246/08]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The HSE maintains a common list of reimbursable medicines for the General Medical Services and Drug Payment schemes. This list is reviewed and amended monthly, as new products become available and deletions are notified. For an item to be reimbursed, it must comply with published criteria, including authorisation status as appropriate, price and, in certain cases, the intended use of the product. In addition, the product must ordinarily be supplied to the public only by medical prescription and should not be advertised or promoted to the public. Products are considered for reimbursement on application to the HSE by a supplier.

Only drugs and medicines which are licensed for dispensing in a community pharmacy, on foot of a doctor's prescription, qualify for reimbursement under the schemes. As the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine for screening for cervical cancer vaccine would require a clinical administration, it would not meet the criteria for reimbursement.

As is being done in other jurisdictions, Ireland is now considering the potential role of HPV vaccination in addressing cervical cancer prevention. The National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) has undertaken a scientific assessment of the public health value of HPV following a request from my Department. NIAC and the National Cancer Screening Service (NCSS) agreed that this work needed to be complemented by a study of the cost effectiveness of the vaccine in the current Irish context. Accordingly, both organisations requested that the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) undertake this study. When I have received the results of this work I will then be in a position to take the necessary policy decisions based on the best available national and international evidence. In the meantime, the NCSS is planning to roll-out the National Cervical Screening Programme on a national basis around the middle of this year.