Patient groups call for policy shift to avoid looming‘drug iceberg’

‘Buck-passing’ in approval process is denying patients life-saving drugs, says group

Patient action group Alpha-1 protest outside Leinster House Pic: Rollingnews.ie

Thirty-five patient organisations have called for a new national strategy on access to the latest innovative drug therapies.

Their call, which has been made in a report, comes as access to new medicines has deteriorated in Ireland and after a warning that the claimed savings from the state’s deal with the pharmaceutical industry were grossly overstated.

The patient organisations, which are represented by the Irish Platform for Patient Organisations, Science and Industry (IPPOSI) ...