Biogen’s Michael O’Connell has been confirmed as Vice-President. Mr Reid takes over the role vacated by GSK’s Aidan Lynch after his two-year term.
Mr Reid pledged to focus his presidency on ‘collaboration’ and ‘innovation’ as Ireland and the world deal with the social and economic disruption caused by Covid-19.
Mr Reid said he was looking forward to leading IPHA through the next two years with an agenda focused on integrating medicines innovation deeper into the healthcare system through partnerships with public sector stakeholders across health, enterprise and research.
“Among my first tasks will be to lead negotiations on a new industry-State Agreement that
delivers faster access for patients to the new innovative therapies our companies are bringing forward. Ireland still ranks among the slowest countries in western Europe to make new medicines
available to patients.
“A new Agreement should be based on the principle of joint funding, with industry and the State agreeing between them to cover the cost of new medicines. That is the fairest way to ensure patients get timely access to the best new treatments. The first step is for the Government to allocate in the October Budget new funding for new medicines,” said Mr Reid.
He said the industry’s work on Brexit and Covid-19, and on agreeing an extension to the current Agreement, demonstrated that partnership with the Government works.
“In the Brexit and Covid-19 environment, it is more important than ever for the industry to
collaborate across Government so that Ireland can deal with the serious risks posed by both events
and, at the same time, realise the opportunity of medicines innovation. Our industry has been
focused on securing the supply of medicines for Irish patients, keeping manufacturing sites
going, and searching for vaccines and treatments for COVID-19. We are working too, with others, on positioning Ireland as a leader in emerging areas of medicines innovation such as cell and gene therapies and Industry 4.0. We want to help the Government to prepare for future healthcare shocks through better data and information-sharing, boosting immunisation rates, cooperating on applied research and building health system resilience,” said Mr Reid.
