Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has been warned his Government is allowing people to die while a life-saving drug is left locked in a warehouse due to an ongoing financial row with a pharmaceutical firm.

No talks are under way with the manufacturer of a drug that threw a lifeline to patients with genetic emphysema, despite a commitment from the health minister to the family of a woman who died while the drug was withheld.

Lorraine Doherty hopes other sufferers of genetic emphysema won’t die, as her mother did, last year, because of the HSE’s refusal to pay for drugs, writes Health Correspondent Catherine Shanahan

Patients with genetic emphysema should have access restored, by the end of next week, to a drug withheld for more than a month in a row over who should pay to administer it.

The HSE has agreed to cover the administration costs of a therapy known to slow the progression of genetic emphysema — after a second patient with the condition died.