Part of the issue is the eternal battle between medical need and budget resources. O’Day argues that, especially with drugs for smaller patient populations, countries need to consider “both the patient size and the effect size to decide what they are going to reimburse”.“I’m not an expert on the current system in Ireland but I can speak more generally.
That delivered a healthy bounce to Gilead’s bottom line, putting the brake on a fall in revenues as generic competition ate into the company’s hepatitis portfolio that had long been a mainstay of the business. O’Day sees Covid and its mutations as a long-term health challenge and the company is currently working on an oral medication for patients.If Covid was a case of being in the right place at the right time, it is on the company’s delivery of its ambitions for cancer care that O’Day will ultimately be judged.