Government seeks to join ‘cheap drugs’ bloc

IRELAND is seeking to join a league of nations to access cheaper medicines by negotiating as a bloc.

Health Minister Simon Harris confirmed Ireland is to open negotiations with Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Austria on joining their group on drug pricing and supply.

He is writing to the four to formally signal our interest in becoming the fifth member of the collaboration, known as the BeNeLuxA Initiative.

Leo Varadkar used his recent speech to the European Parliament on the future of Europe to call for cheaper medicines through a pooled system. The Taoiseach said: ‘I believe that we should work more closely on the cost of medicines.

‘This could save billions for taxpayers, freeing up funding to ensure that modern medicines are available to patients at the same time in every country. Let’s pool the buying power of 450million people to do so.’

Minister Harris yesterday said he was delighted to receive Cabinet approval for Ireland to open talks on joining the pharma league.

‘I look forward to working with these countries to explore opportunities to secure affordable access to new medicines for Irish patients,’ he said.

‘I will be travelling to Belgium and the Netherlands in the coming weeks and hope to begin discussions with my ministerial counterparts in both countries.’ Securing access to new and innovative medicines, in a manner that is affordable and sustainable, was a key objective, he insisted.

The BeNeLuxA collaboration is well established and it would be ‘a concrete step forward,’ for Ireland to join, he said.

Savings would run into the tens of millions – and officials said they expected Ireland’s application to join the league to proceed smoothly.