A couple of weeks ago Newstalk Lunchtime spoke to Margaret Ready, 59, a terminally ill cancer patient who had been lobbying the HSE to approve her access to a specific drug that could prolong her life.
Listen: Margaret Ready speaking to Newstalk Lunchtime on Tuesday, August 4
Margaret spoke to Lunchtime again today (Tuesday) and told Newstalk that following her plea to the HSE and Health Minister Leo Vardakar, to approve the use of the chemotherapy drug TDMI (Kadcyla), she has been told she will now receive the medication.
“I heard last week that the treatment is available,” Margaret told Lunchtime. “(I) was absolutely shocked ... ecstatic.”
The initial refusal of the HSE to supply the drug was based on it prohibitive cost and a lack of clinical studies suggesting it was effective.
Margaret is expected to start her new course of treatment “in the next couple of weeks or so.”
Advocates of TDMI say the major advantage of the drug is that it targets the tumour, making the treatment more effective and far less strenuous on the patient.
“I’ve been through all the different chemotherapies and this one now is a targeted one which goes directly to the tumour,” Margaret said.
“I’m really looking forward to getting this one now (it will) hopefully prolong my life.”
The drug costs roughly €65,000-80,000 per patient and this had been the central factor in the original decision.
“The cost element is between the HSE and the drug company and I understand why they argue over the price but in this case the patient was caught in the middle,” Margaret said.
Listen: Margaret Ready speaking to Lunchtime on July 16
The Government and the HSE had initially refused to supply after it was turned down by the Public Health Watchdog in June 2014. The Health Minister said that while he sympathised with Margaret’s case it was not appropriate for him to influence in the matter.
As a minister, he said, it would be inappropriate to “try and change scientific fact or try and overturn clinical advice.”
“That would be an appalling, inappropriate thing for me to do and I won’t be doing that,” he said.
