Ava Battles Chief Executive of MS Ireland welcomed the news saying “This is wonderful news for the cohort of people living with MS who benefit from this treatment but have been struggling to self-fund or those who have been unable to access it due to the prohibitive costs.
“MS Ireland have been advocating for this medication to be made available for many years. 10 years ago MS we were supporting a change in legislation which was required before this medication could even be prescribed. Following on from that we made numerous representations on behalf of the MS community including patient group submissions as part of the reimbursement process.”
Consultant Neurologist Dr Hugh Kearney said “Sativex will be an additional pharmacological treatment available for spasticity in MS. Our hope is that with better disease modifying drugs for MS we will see complications like spasticity much less often. This medication option may not suit everyone as it has many possible side effects, so other treatments such as physiotherapy and occupational therapy will still be as important as ever.”