Tag Archives: Pembrolizamub

A QUIN woman has secured access to vital cancer treatment, after she and her husband went public about their health insurer’s initial refusal to cover the cost. Maria Meade had surgery, earlier this year, for an aggressive form of cancer and was recommended to start a course of the break-through drug Pembrolizamub. While her insurer, Laya, refused to cover the €150,000 cost of the immunotherapy treatment, citing  guidance from the National Cancer Control Programme (NCCP), the National Centre for Pharmaeconomics (NCPE), the company has now agreed to fund the drug on a three-month trial basis. Maria will start treatment next week. “Laya have agreed to cover the cost for three months,” Tom Meade explained. “There will then be a review and a report from Maria’s consultant oncologist, but we would be hopeful that there will be cover for ongoing treatment.” Earlier this month, the couple contacted politicians and the media over fears of the impact that missing out on the …

A QUIN woman, with an aggressive form of cancer, has hit out at the fact that so many sick people have to fight to access life-saving treatments. Maria Meade’s oncologist has recommended a break-through drug, but currently her health insurer doesn’t automatically cover the cost for patients at her stage of illness. A year-long course of Pembrolizamub, an immunotherapy treatment, will cost at least €150,000, a price tag which Fianna Fáil Deputy Cathal Crowe compared, in the Dáil, to paying a second mortgage. Maria and her husband Tom describe themselves as “very private people”. Speaking publicly on sensitive health issues is the last thing they would ordinarily do, but the couple said they have been left with no choice. After some physically gruelling surgery, carried out in the depths of the lockdown, Maria is cancer free. Her oncologist has told her that her best chance of staying that way is to start a course of the break-through drug, also known …