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6th December 2016 • Volume 23, Issue 42 • Leader House, North Street, Swords, Co. Dublin. K67 P5W4. • Tel: 01 8•400•200 • info@northcountyleader.ie • www.northcountyleader.ie
Universal Agreement On Life Saving Drug
Pictured is Shane McAvinchey, from Malahide with the Dance Practice Pad in the Best Idea category at the County Final of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) competition, which took place in County Hall, Main Street Swords on Wednesday evening. See story on page 12
The controversy surrounding the ‘miracle’ drug, Orkambi, which is claimed will have a life changing effect on Cystic Fibrosis (CF) sufferers is one that is expected to continue for many months. Orkambi is manufactured in the USA and comes with the enormous price tag of €159,000 per year for an estimated 550 people in Ireland who may benefit from taking it. This amounts to a staggering €87 million per year to the exchequer. This has prompted the HSE to abandon plans to purchase the drug, claiming that it is not cost effective. This has ruffled the feathers of local representatives, who claim that the pharmaceutical companies need to be faced down and a realistic price needs to be negotiated. While there are compelling arguments on both sides of the debate, including the huge cost and the affordability of the state to fund this vital drug, there is also the question of the
drips for two weeks By Patrick Finnegan and I have to stay there. This is a morality of pharmaregular thing for the ceutical companies, past four years and like Vertex who manuit’s not good at all,” facture Orkambi and said Ruth. their apparent disre“I find it very difficult gard for the welfare to get my breath and of sufferers, at my lung function has the expense of definitely gone down massive profits. from what it was. It The County Leader was in the hundreds spoke to Malahide some years ago, but girl, Ruth Nolan (15), Pictured is Ruth Nolan (15), who suffers from Cystic Fibrosis now it’s in the 60s whose life would be and her mother, Elaine who are appealing to the HSE to make and lower. I just feel completely turned miracle drug, Orkambi available to treat sufferers like Ruth that if I got Orkambi, around by having Orkambi available to her. Ruth was a competi- my lung function would shoot back up, as I tive swimmer and was passionate about her have no lung damage yet. The way things are, hobby, but she had to give it up two years I have no social life and I can’t go out without ago, due to her medical condition and being getting breathless and being sick,” she said. Continued on page 23 sick regularly. Ruth said, “I was diagnosed with CF at seven weeks old and while I was well as a child, it progressed as I got older. I have treatments for an hour in the morning and an hour at night and I have to go to hospital to have IV
Great Honour For Malahide Man The Marker Hotel’s General Manager, Charlie Sheil, from Malahide, has been enrolled into the Irish Hospitality Institute’s (IHI) prestigious college of fellows at its annual Founder’s Banquet and Hospitality Management Awards on Thursday, 24th November. Taking place at the Clayton Hotel, Burlington Road, this awards ceremony is known as the Oscars of the hospitality industry and was attended by over 500 industry leaders with master of ceremonies, Michael Vaughan and Minister of State for Tourism & Sport Patrick O’Donovan TD. This year celebrates the
Golden Jubilee of the IHI and recognises the personal contribution of individual hospitality professionals across the 12 award categories. With a career spanning 25 years, Charlie Sheil has worked in many different countries including France, Switzerland and New York where he spent time at the world famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. He has overseen and project managed three landmark hotel openings in Ireland including The Marker Hotel, The Gibson Hotel and The Clarion Hotel in Cork. He has also played a part over the years in education within the industry, including his role as the founding co-
Pictured outside the Marker Hotel is General Manager and Malahide man, Charlie Sheil
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ordinator and lecturer for the Accelerated Course in Food & Beverage Operations at New York University and a year’s teaching at a Paris Hotel School. Speaking about his award, Sheil said, “I am delighted to receive this award and I am very grateful for the many great opportunities that I have had so far in my career. This recognition would not have been possible without the fantastic support of both my family and the team of great professionals that I work with every day at The Marker Hotel,” he said.