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VICKY PHELAN HAS urged the government to make the drug pembrolizumab available to all women with cervical cancer in Ireland.
The drug, which Phelan said is allowing her to live with the disease despite her terminal diagnosis in January, has been offered by the State to the 221 women affected by the CervicalCheck crisis.
She said Pembro should be made available to all women who are diagnosed with cervical cancer and whose tumours are likely to respond to the treatment. One dose every three weeks costs €8,500 and it is recommended that patients stay on this dose for two years.
“That’s a lot of money when you add it up,” she told RTÉ’s Claire Byrne Live last night.
Phelan said she feels uncomfortable receiving the drug knowing other women who could be helped by it do not have the option.
The 44-year-old said that she has practically no side-effects from the drug and it has given her a much better quality of life compared to her time undergoing chemotherapy when she said she was unable to be there for her children because it made her so ill.
Most days I don’t even think about having cancer, to be honest, that’s massive to be able to say that with a terminal diagnosis. For me, it’s a no-brainer if you can target this drug and you score high and your tumour will respond to it, you can live with this disease.
Phelan said she recognises that this drug is not a cure for cervical cancer and there may come a time when it stops working, but for now it is buying her time with her family.
“I didn’t think I’d see this end of the year, to be honest; that’s how bad things were back in January.”
The HSE said the use of pembrolizumab in the treatment of cervical cancer has been approved by the FDA in the USA, but does not yet have a licence in Europe.
“We expect that pembrolizumab will be submitted to the European Medicines Agency for licensing for the treatment of cervical cancer in the future.
“On that basis, the use of the drug for the treatment for cervical cancer cannot yet be considered for national reimbursement by the HSE and is not approved by the HSE for reimbursement.”
The HSE said the establishment of the CervicalCheck support package was an “exceptional measure”.
“Outside of this patient group, access to investigational medicines is normally through a clinical trial. The HSE would emphasise that the patient’s clinician is usually best advised to inform the patient of any clinical trial options that would be suitable.”
During Leaders Questions today, Labour leader Brendan Howlin said that the decision to provide some cancer patients with the drug and not others was made on “dubious legal grounds”.
You can’t look two women in the eye suffering from the same disease and say the State will give a potentially life saving drug to one but not to the other.
He said that all patients should be treated equally, and that this is enshrined under the Constitution:
“We need to have a plan in place to ensure there is equity in access to this drug for those who need it. And time is not on the side of many of the people who need this treatment.”
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Hailo raised it percentage take and lost taxi drivers.
When was that?just curious
Hailo charge 12% commisssion, that’s it. No €79.00 or €99.00 a week with Citycabs/Global/Lynk.
Still has over half the Dublin fleet at 7,000+
Hailo will lose more drivers if they keep uping the aunty with price and rules silly rules !
You can’t up an “Aunty”, well maybe you can. Upping the ante is another thing. lol
They do take credit card but yes you do have to sign up first
They lost me when they stooped the use of their credit card facilities for non bailout jobs/customers it was extremely handy
What is a non bailout job or customer
I think he misspelled it ……..its meant to read non hailo jobs as in you used to be able to take credit card jobs of the street now the customer has to download the app if they want to pay by card…….stupid idea from hailo…
Hailo have added the option to pre book now so that’s not a unique feature for lynk
Hailo had to add that feature because it was the next step …….and to keep up with other apps that have that feature before them ….e.g…cab:app
My husband left a cab company recently. The company sold the controlling share to the guy named above. They thought that they could sell the drivers rent as part of the business package, (Approx’ €5K per year),forgetting that the drivers hire the cab company to supply them with work, and they work for the driver. Not wanting any association withthe new owners, he fired them.
He wondered why, as he calls it “the Weakest Lynk”, chose the exact same colour branding as Hailo? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery I suppose.
Lynk taxis. €25 free sign up. €5 per journey if you pay by card but wait there’s a €3 booking fee before you sit in the taxi. It is removed after you use your “free” €25. So, free €10 sign up.
They can’t charge €3 for booking ! €2 is max Hailo don’t charge for booking
They do. I got a taxi that usually costs less than €5 and cost me over €8. Minus the “five” free. When you contact them they say that is taken off when your €25 is up.
I always use the lynk app ( Irish owned company)
To be fair Hailo was set up by 3 guys one Irish
it was set up back 3 London black cab drivers
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