Margaret Ready was diagnosed with cancer in 2004. 11 years later, at age 59, her condition is now terminal and she is pleading with the HSE and the Minister for Health to provide her with a drug that could prolong her life.
Margaret, from Carlow, wants to access the chemotherapy drug TDM1 (Kadcyla), in the hope it could prolong her life. She says the Government and the HSE have refused to do so after it was turned down by the Public Health Watchdog in June 2014.
“I’ve been on all the different chemos that are available and it’s not holding the cancer back anymore,” Margaret told Newstalk Lunchtime today.
“TDN1 is targeted treatment which ... actually goes directly to the tumour and it lodges on the outside a tumour.
The side effects are far less severe than chemotherapy, Margaret says. “It doesn’t do as much damage.”
The drug costs roughly €65-85,000 per patient, “depending on the weight of the person and the stage of your disease,” Margaret said.
“My issue is that for people who desperately need it there should be away around it while the negotiations are going on. Because the negotiations have been going on for a year.”
Leo Varadkar has said that while he sympathises with those who have, or continue to, suffer with cancer, it is not his place to intervene as “in this particular case the findings so far are that this drug not only is not cost effective but is no more effective than existing treatments.
“The clinical doesn’t stack up very strongly for it,” Mr Varadkar said.
He added that as a minister 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.”
When asked if she would like to meet with the Health Minister, Margaret there’s “Not much point really, is there?”
Not being able to access the drug, and facing death while knowing there is a drug that could, possibly, extend her life, “makes being terminally ill and at the end of the road more difficult,” Margaret said, “to know that there is something that may help, and you’re not going to get the opportunity to try.”
“Your survival instinct is really strong and this is my last option.”
The HSE have responded to Newstalk Lunchtime, saying they are “negotiations are ongoing” with the drug’s manufacturers, Roche Products.
Decisions on purchasing drugs are “are not political or ministerial decisions,” the HSE said.
“These decisions are made on objective, scientific and economic grounds by the HSE on the advice of the NCPE (National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics).”
