The Health Service Executive drugs group is expected to meet next month to consider the new advanced cancer drugs pembrolizumab (Pembro) and nivolumab.
As doctors warned that cancer patients would die because of delays in accessing the new drugs, the HSE said in a statement that the “single biggest barrier to new drugs approvals in Ireland is the high prices that manufacturers are seeking to charge”.
Described as “game-changing” treatment for certain melanoma and lung cancers, Pembro would cost an estimated €64 million over five years, or €12.8 million a year, “at the price being sought by the pharmaceutical company”, the HSE statement said. Pembro costs an estimated €134,000 a year per patient.
The executive said it was widely recognised that Ireland was already paying higher prices for medicines than many other EU countries.
It said it “must operate within its allocated budget for 2016”, and in the service plan for the year had been allocated an additional €7 million for cancer drugs.
Oncologist Prof John Crown had warned that some of his patients would not survive if they did not access the drugs or might be too sick by a time a decision was made. He said Minister for Health Simon Harris could fix the issue “with a stroke of his pen in two minutes”.
Under assessment
However, the issue has not yet reached the desk of the Minister and is still under assessment by the HSE, whose drugs group has not met since March but is now expected to convene next month.
The HSE said “the drugs are being carefully considered under a process of health technology assessment, in order to determine value for money and patient benefits”.
The Minister said in a statement he was very concerned for the patients affected. “The drugs referred to are currently being considered by the HSE under the national medicines pricing and reimbursement assessment process. The assessment process is ongoing.”
Michelle Walsh, a nurse from West Cork suffering with metastatic melanoma, was put on Ippi (ipilimumab) but it did not reduce the tumours. She was switched to Pembro, and has been on the drug for more than a year and a half as an effective treatment for the tumours that had spread to her lungs and adrenal glands.
“It has extended my life. There is no doubt about that,” she said.
Ms Walsh, a patient of Cork oncologist Dr Derek Power, said “I feel I was one of the lucky ones,” to be on the drug. “It is definitely proven,” she said.
The Irish Cancer Society said it did not comment on drugs currently under negotiation between payers and pharmaceutical companies.
The society “considers continued access to effective treatments for cancer patients to be of critical importance as we start to look towards a future without cancer”.
