Czyżewscy Law Firm wins a dispute with the Minister of Health on reimbursement of a drug for a diseased child

Lawyers from Czyżewscy Law Firm, within the scope of its pro bono activities, represent a child suffering from a very rare disease – Dravet’s syndrome – in his dispute with the Minister of Health. Apart from threats to life and health, the said disease is characterized by its weak response to any drug treatment. 

According to our Client’s physician, using a specific drug would be likely to improve his health condition. Because the drug has a very high price and is not admissible in Poland, our Client applied to the Minister of Health for its consent to import the drug and for its reimbursement. The Minister of Health gave consent to import the drug, but refused to reimburse it. According to the Minister of Health, refusal of reimbursement has been caused by formal reasons. The Minister did not contest the merits – the facts that applying the drug is indispensable to save life and health and that there is no alternative treatment that could be applied in this case.

The Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw, with the sentence from August 20th, 2015, has revoked the decision of the Minister of Health refusing reimbursement. In its verbal reasons for the sentence, the Court has accepted arguments of attorney-at-law, Tomasz Jan Siemiński – lawyer at Czyżewscy Law Firm, that the decision of the Minister of Health is contrary to the principle of increasing the trust of citizens in the State bodies. The breach of that principle consisted mainly in the fact, that in similar cases of other patients, the Minister of Health had reimbursed the drug. 

The Court noticed that indeed each case has its individual nature, but in this case, both legal and factual grounds had been similar to those in which the Minister reimbursed the drug. 

The sentence is not legally binding yet.

From the side of the Firm, the case has been conducted by: attorney-at-law Katarzyna Czyżewska, attorney-at-law Tomasz Jan Siemiński, and trainee attorney-at-law Dominika Chrabańska