Charity pushes for drug to be made available to fight rare blindness disease

In a letter to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly in July, the charity Fighting Blindness cited a two-year-old and a three-year-old with a rare genetic mutation that could cause them blindness.

The HSE has said an application to fund a gene therapy that can fight a rare condition which can result in blindness remains “under consideration”, amid calls to make Luxturna available to treat adults and children in Ireland.

While Luxturna is available for patients in Britain and most other countries in western Europe, it has not yet been approved for reimbursement in Ireland.