Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) (Amendment) Bill 2018

Public bill · Private Member · Introduced

Adds special rules for deciding whether rare-disease medicines can be paid for by the health service. It would stop standard cost-effectiveness thresholds being used against orphan medicines and instead require the Health Service Executive to weigh factors like unmet need, disease severity, patient safety, clinical benefit, budget impact, patient views, and whether the medicine is available in other European countries. Why it matters: medicines for very small patient groups are often hard to assess using ordinary price tests, so this aims to give them a fairer route onto the reimbursement list.

Formal long title

Bill entitled an Act to amend the Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Act 2013 to establish specific criteria applicable for orphan medicinal products for the purposes of the Health Service Executive making a relevant decision regarding adding an item to the Reimbursement List

Last updated 13 February 2020