When B.C. Premier David Eby meets with Canada’s provincial and territorial premiers this month for a meeting of the Council of the Federation, accelerating patient access to new, effective cancer treatments to improve health outcomes should be at the top of their agenda.
As patient organizations representing cancer patients for many years, Colorectal Cancer Canada and the CanCertainty Coalition are calling out the long delays Canadian patients face when they need new cancer treatments. These delays are taking a toll and can be measured in the number of lives lost.
There will be almost a quarter of a million people newly diagnosed with cancer in Canada this year. For some, new medications are their only hope to prolong their lives. Despite this, accessing them may take years — time many won’t have.
Patients and families ask groups like ours, why does it take so long?
Canada currently ranks a dismal last place of the G7 countries for the length of time it takes to approve and provide patients new cancer drugs. This takes about two years of waiting in Canada, while other countries manage their regulatory and health technology assessment process in half the time.
We must do much better for Canadians already living with the burden of a cancer diagnosis.
Since 2022, our organizations have been thoroughly examining this issue with the goal of finding solutions. We have convened policy roundtable sessions and policy summits. We have sought expert insights from a range of healthcare professionals, industry leaders, health policy consultants, patient groups, health technology assessment agency representatives, and provincial drug program managers to explore new thinking and update frameworks to enhance patient access to new cancer medicines.
We have studied international best practices and their relevance in the Canadian context. We have also critically examined the intricate and protracted drug negotiation process, led by the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance (pCPA).
And, we have scrutinised the often-lengthy time it takes provinces to list these drugs on their respective formularies and are finally made available to patients. For example, in Ontario it takes almost six months once a price has been negotiated at pCPA before the new drug is available to cancer patients.
British Columbia can and must move much faster.
We applaud the announcement by Ontario Premier Doug Ford that he will focus on accelerating treatment access for patients in Ontario, and that as Chair of the Council of the Federation he will encourage other Premiers to make this issue a priority, as this is a national crisis.
Patient organizations support Premier Ford’s intention to see innovative treatments for life-threatening or severely debilitating conditions, such as cancer, funded immediately after Canada’s Drug Agency (CDA) issues a funding recommendation.
This means patients would not have to endure the lengthy bureaucratic price negotiations before accessing the treatment they need.
Premiers can take immediate action to help cancer patients by ensuring new drugs are made available immediately following the reviews conducted by Canada’s Drug Agency (CDA) or L'Institut national d'excellence en santé et en services sociaux (INESSS) by incentivizing rapid price negotiations at the pCPA.
This is not an unsurmountable task. Collectively we have the capability, means and the opportunity to make this a reality.
We call on Premier David Eby and B.C. health minister Josie Osborne to make timely access to new cancer drugs a priority now with the unified goal of dramatically reducing wait times for access to new cancer drugs, because cancer patients cannot wait.
Robert Bick is a charter board member of Kidney Cancer Canada, and the co-lead and co-founder of the CanCertainty Coalition.
Barry Stein is the president and CEO of Colorectal Cancer Canada and is a survivor of metastatic colorectal cancer.
The CanCertainty Coalition is the united voice of more than 30 Canadian patient groups, cancer health charities and caregiver organizations working with oncologists and cancer care professionals to improve the affordability and accessibility of cancer treatment.
