Cabinet to assess 20 drugs in 2016 under new rules

Ministers charged with making life or death calls

HSE director general Tony OBrien Pic: RollingNews.ie

Twenty expensive new medicines are expected to go to cabinet for approval this year, the Department of Health has said.

Under a radically changed approval process, the government now has to approve expensive medicines before the Health Service Executive (HSE) will pay for them.

New drugs to treat cancer, high cholesterol and cystic fibrosis are at various stages of the assessment process at present. The cumulative cost of these medicines is about €300 ...