Irish pharma agrees deal with govt for price cuts on medicines

The Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA) this week announced a very significant new supply agreement with the country’s Department of Health and the Health Service Executive, which will ensure that new medicines are made available to Irish patients, by reducing the price of hundreds of commonly used medicines by an average of 10%.

The projected overall reduction equates to about 7%of the Ireland’s 1.9 billion-euro annual spend on drugs, noted The Irish Times, saying  that, in return for making price concessions, the pharmaceutical companies won acceptance of the principle that new medicines will be approved under the HSE’s drug schemes once they have been proven to be cost effective.

According to David Gallagher, outgoing president who led the negotiations on behalf of IPHA, “Ireland has a strong record in ensuring that patients can access new advanced therapies. This new agreement provides assurance for Irish patients that they will be able to get new medicines when they become available. Medicines are a key pillar of any advanced health system and medical innovation has extended life expectancy through reducing illness and death. Many patients are in need of new, advanced medicines in areas such as Alzheimer’s Disease, arthritis, cancer, stroke prevention, multiple sclerosis and cystic fibrosis.”