Wiser, not more, spending on our drug bill will save lives

Paying up-front for medical research would encourage innovation and end costly monopolies by allowing generic competition to flourish, according to Diarmaid McDonald and Dr Kieran Harkin

THE stories are sadly familiar — a child, a mother, a grandparent desperate to get access to a medicine that will give them hope, but denied it because the price charged by the pharmaceutical corporation is too high.

In Ireland, we’ve seen it most recently with Orkambi, a treatment for cystic fibrosis that is priced at an eye-watering €160,000 per patient per year and with Respreeza, a treatment for certain types of emphysema at over €100,000.