Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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321. To ask the Minister for Health if further information will be provided on Ireland’s membership of the BeNeLuxA initiative; the number of meetings he and his officials attended as part of the initiative; the main outcomes to date; the main objectives of the initiative for 2019; his views on whether momentum should be renewed on strengthening the balance in the pharmaceutical systems across the entire EU system and member states as concluded by the European Council in 2016; the steps being taken at European Council level; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3817/19]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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On the 22 June 2018, I signed the Beneluxa Initiative on Pharmaceutical Policy to work with Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. This Agreement is in line with my objective to work with other European countries to identify workable solutions, in an increasingly challenging environment, to secure timely access for patients to new medicines in an affordable and sustainable way.

The Beneluxa collaboration was established in 2015, with a view to taking a collective approach to pharmaceutical procurement and evaluation. The main objectives of this Initiative are to enhance patients' access to high quality and affordable treatments, improve the payers' position in the market through joint negotiations, increase transparency on pricing between the collaborating countries, share policy expertise and focus on knowledge building and enable national health challenges to be anticipated more effectively through the use of horizon scanning.

This Initiative is well established, with clear goals and a pragmatic approach to delivering on its objectives. Four areas of collaboration have been identified and there are four Domain Task Forces: horizon scanning, health technology assessment, information sharing and policy exchange and joint price negotiations.

The working methods of the initiative are face to face meetings, and via video conferencing, teleconference and web based meetings. A number of meetings have taken place since Ireland became a member in June 2018. Officials from My Department have attended 2 physical meetings and representatives from the HSE have attended 1 meeting abroad. Regular teleconferences take place within the Domain Task Forces and Ireland is represented by officials from the HSE during these meetings. A Beneluxa webinar was held in December 2018.

Beneluxa works together closely on horizon scanning, to explore which innovative medicines are expected to reach the market in the near future. In this context, a project is on-going on the development of an International Horizon Scanning Initiative (IHSI), which seeks to build a permanent horizon scanning system that can support countries and institutions in policy planning and their decision making regarding the reimbursement of new pharmaceuticals. In addition, the Beneluxa partners conduct joint health technology assessments and share data and policies.

The Deputy will be aware that a recurrent theme on the Agenda of previous Council Presidencies has been the topic of access to medication and I am pleased that the Romanian Presidency are continuing efforts to ensure that this topic remains at the forefront. The Romanian Presidency will continue the negotiations in the Council on the proposal for a Regulation on coordination in health technology assessment and it has indicated that it intends to organise debates on patient mobility and to encourage cooperation between Member States in the treatment of patients under the age of 18 who suffer from rare diseases. I look forward to working with colleagues over the duration of the Romanian Presidency to advancing the agenda of finding workable solutions to the challenges which exist in relation to medicines pricing, sustainability and supply.