There will be an estimated 247,100 new cancer cases in Canada this year. Some of these oncology patients will rely on new, innovative and potentially life-saving medications as their only hope. Unfortunately, they may have to wait years to access them — time many won’t have.
As patient representatives working in the area of oncology for many years, we have seen the deterioration in access to treatments for cancer over the years, while the number of cancer patients increases.
So we, along with oncology patients across the country, applauded the recent announcement by Ontario Premier Doug Ford that he will focus attention on getting medications approved faster in Canada during his role as Chair of the Council of the Federation this year.
As Ford noted, Canada currently ranks a dismal last place in the G7 for the time it takes to approve and provide patients essential new medicines. In Canada, this takes about two years — while other similar countries manage the process in half the time. Canada must do much better.
All steps to save the lives of cancer patients across the country should be of paramount importance to every Premier. But the details matter. What policy and process changes will be needed to carry out this monumentally important promise?
And as former Ontario cancer patients ourselves, we have notes for Premier Ford for his own province.
First, the Council of the Federation must help to fix our broken price negotiations process for new treatments that are unnecessarily long. Ontario is the largest partner at this pan-Canadian negotiation table, so Ford can ensure that processes that are delaying drugs getting to people in Ontario are done as quickly as possible.
Secondly, when these negotiations are completed, Ford can immediately have Ontario move much faster to make these drugs available to patients. Currently in Ontario, it takes almost half a year for these drugs, where a price has already been negotiated, to be made available to patients. This contrasts with Quebec, where it takes only an average of 44 days.
Ford should also ensure patients needing these medications in Ontario should get them through our publicly funded reimbursement plan as fast as possible. This will provide desperately needed relief for patients who urgently need these treatments but who can’t afford to pay.
Finally, Ford can immediately improve access to orally (or subcutaneously) administered cancer drugs that patients take at home. In Ontario, cancer patients younger than 65 years old face a two-tiered, out-of-date system that is riddled with administrative hurdles, out-of-pocket costs and delays for take-home cancer treatments.
The western provinces, the northern territories and Quebec have all developed funding mechanisms so that patients can access these take-home cancer treatments regardless of one’s age. Solving this issue is the principled and ethical thing to do.
Making orally administered cancer drugs accessible to everyone would also support equality relative to other fully funded IV therapies in Ontario. And it would ensure equity, so that patients do not have to bear catastrophic drug costs simply because of the form (pill or subcutaneous injection) or site (at home) of therapy.
With this important announcement, Premier Ford has taken a critical step toward enhancing access to needed life saving and quality of life enhancing medicines for all Canadians. We trust that he will also have the courage to recognize the many changes required to make his own province — Ontario — a first-class jurisdiction for health care.
Patient lives depend on it.
Photo courtesy of DepositPhotos
