As Ireland goes to the polls, IPHA calls for new policy on medicines access

As the general election campaign began its second week, the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA) urged all political parties to pledge to improve patients’ access to new medicines as part of their plans for health.

The IPHA represents the international originator biopharmaceutical industry in Ireland. The biopharmaceutical industry is one the county’s most significant investors, creating some 30,000 jobs that are regionally distributed and accounting for about half the country’s exports.

Ireland remains among the slowest in Western Europe to provide new medicines to patients. In the last Dáil (Parliament), patients’ groups regularly protested for access to new medicines. Ministers ended up making political decisions on medicines. At the same time, very large savings, price cuts and cash rebates are still being provided by pharmaceutical companies to the Health Services Executive (HSE).