Troika chief: Pharmaceutical drug costs cannot be justified

The head of the European Commission’s troika mission to Ireland told Government TDs the cost of pharmaceutical drugs here cannot be justified, and is at least three times more expensive than in Britain.

Istvan Szekely, EC director of economic and financial affairs, told the delegation of Fine Gael and Labour TDs that pharmaceutical drug costs were an outstanding issue and were “not sustainable”.

Mr Szekely’s comments came after troika sources earlier this week told the Irish Examiner there were “substantial” savings still to be made through generic drugs which would be “less painful” than medical card changes.