A leading pharmaceutical company increased the cost of essential epilepsy medicine by more than 1,300 per cent and sought price rises of up to 3,000 per cent to maintain other drugs in the Irish market, The Times can reveal.

Essential Pharma, a US company, wrote to the HSE in February last year saying that it required a substantial price rise to “ensure the continued supply” in the Irish market of Zarontin, an anti-convulsant used to treat epilepsy. Internal HSE memos seen by The Times show Essential Pharma sought to increase the price of the drug from €3.56 a pack to €50. If the drugs were discontinued, the company said they could be imported from the UK “where it was deemed necessary to maintain a patient