Patients here do not get the same speed of access to innovative and life changing medicines as their counterparts in other European countries.
That is according to the directors of the main Irish arm of pharma giant, Roche who said that "actives steps must be made to speed up the re-imbursesment process to avoid Ireland lagging behind other European countries".
The directors have made their comments in new financial statements which show that pre-tax profits at Roche Products (Ireland) Ltd last year declined by 5% to €4.53 million.
Pre-tax profits at the Roche unit dipped despite revenues increasing by 11% cent from €105 million to €116.3 million.
The directors said that Ireland is now one of the slowest countries in Europe to re-imburse new medicines and in the past was one of the fastest and the speed of re-imbursement here "continues to be a concern for the directors".
The directors said it was initially anticipated that Roche's Phesgo medication used to treat HER2 positive breast cancer would be re-imbursed and made available to patients in 2022 but did not gain re-imbursement until the start of 2023.
They said that they are encouraged by the Minister for Health's support of the Mazars report which examines the governance arrangements around the HSE’s drug re-imbursment process and makes recommendations.
The firm last year declared a dividend of €7 million and this followed a dividend declared of €4.5 million in 2021.
On the company’s business performance for 2022, the directors said that they were pleased to report that the company "has delivered a solid level of sales growth" in 2022.
The company recorded a post tax profit of €3.69 million after incurring a corporation tax charge of €838,000.
They said that Ocrevus for the treatment of multiple sclerosis and Hemlibra for the treatment of haemophilia both drove growth in 2022.
They said that "strong growth was also shown with the breast cancer medicines, Perjeta and Kadcyla while Tecentriq and Alecensa, both lung cancer medicines, also performed well".
The company also acts as a regional centre for the implementation of global clinical trial programmes.
Numbers employed by the company reduced from 90 to 86 and staff costs in 2022 decreased by 20% from €13.55 million to €10.85 million, though staff costs for 2021 included severance costs of €938,000.
The aggregate pay package to directors last year increased by 45% rising from €907,000 to €1.32 million made up of salary and bonuses of €866,000 and benefits in kind of €460,000
At the end of December 2022, the firm had shareholder funds of €21.42 million that included accumulated profits of €19.45 million.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
