Company behind new Covid-19 treatment 'cannot get meeting with Government'

Celltrion Healthcare, the makers of Regkirona, sent a letter of complaint to Tánaiste Leo Varadkar

Celltrion Healthcare complained in a letter to Tánaiste Leo Varadkar that it has unsuccessfully 'attempted to engage' with the Department of Health and the HSE to make the treatment available. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

The company behind a new Covid-19 anti-viral treatment which could relieve pressure on the country's intensive care unit (ICU) beds claims it has not been granted meetings with senior Government officials.

Regkirona is a new anti-viral treatment, approved by the European Medicines Agency and adopted by other EU countries, and has been shown to radically reduce the need for ICU care in Covid patients who have been treated.

It is said to prevent serious outcomes associated with Covid-19 and works by binding to a specific target on Sars-CoV-2 — the spike receptor-binding domain protein — and flags it as 'foreign' so that other parts of the immune system can help to clear it from the body.

Celltrion Healthcare, the South Korean company which makes Regkirona, has complained in a letter to Tánaiste Leo Varadkar that it has unsuccessfully “attempted to engage” with the Department of Health and the HSE to make the treatment available.

It has failed to be granted a meeting with either Taoiseach Micheál Martin or Health Minister Stephen Donnelly about the treatment's potential.

However, the company states in the letter that “we have simply been pointed to the usual bureaucratic channels for drug approval in Ireland”.

"As you know the approval system in Ireland takes a long time and, as such, we do not believe this response is adequate in the midst of a global pandemic. 

"A more urgent and proactive engagement is required to minimise the impact of Covid-19 and help reduce the serious illness and deaths of Irish citizens from Covid-19,” Celltrion Healthcare managing director JungYong Shin told Mr Varadkar.

Several parliamentary questions to Mr Donnelly have been asked about the possible use of Regkirona but Mr Donnelly said the procurement of services and goods in the HSE must also be carried out in compliance with relevant national and EU policy and legislation, including Department of Public Expenditure and Reform guidelines on public procurement.