The Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association said the extension would see the Government sanction reimbursement of new drugs that had been approved but had additional costs for the HSE later this year.Last year a block was introduced by the Department of Public Expenditure on sanctioning the use of any newly available medicines by the HSE if they generated additional costs.
It said the new extension to the current deal committed the industry and the State “to engage in shared horizon scanning to make it easier to preview new medicines in the pipeline and predict how much they will cost”. The extension to the agreement was welcomed on Friday by Mr Donnelly. He said the move would “preserve, for the next six months, the financial benefits to the State from existing pricing and rebate arrangements, as well as provide a further downward realignment of prices later this year”.
Medicines for Ireland, the trade association representing the generic drug sector, said it supported the extension and looked forward to participating in talks on an overall new agreement for the whole industry in the months ahead.