New agreement on drug pricing to allow state funding of new medicines in Ireland

The Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA) has agreed a new four-year framework agreement with the government for an economic and secure supply of medicines for patients, the trade group announced last week.

The agreement will see total savings of 785 million euros ($880 million) from IPHA member companies, an average of nearly 200 million euros a year.

Dr Leisha Daly, president of the IPHA, who led the IPHA delegation during negotiations, commented: “It is essential that patients have early access to life-saving and life-enhancing new medicines. This agreement is the best way to make that happen. It offers a clear process and sustainable pricing so that new medicines can be made available quickly to patients in Ireland. With this agreement in place, patients and their doctors can rightly expect that priority will be given to funding innovative, new medicines in the health services.”