Treatment Access, Health Economics, and the Wave of a Magic Wand
From Current Oncology: "New drugs are expensive, in part due to excessive drug development costs. Governments are trying to reduce drug prices. This can delay access to effective agents. A country’s access to new drugs [...]
The need for speed in advanced non-small cell lung cancer: A population kinetics assessment
From the Wiley Online Library: Background Systemic therapy prolongs overall survival (OS) in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but diagnostic tests, staging and molecular profiling take time, and this can delay therapy initiation. OS [...]
PMPRB: Why lower drug prices may mean less access
From Healthing: "The body responsible for pricing patented drugs in Canada — the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) — has proposed changes to lower the cost of drugs, which are scheduled to come into [...]
The High Cost of Cheap
From C.A.R.P.: "Like father, like son. In the 1970s, Trudeau senior brought in price controls to combat inflation. They failed miserably. On July 1, Trudeau junior’s government will activate new Patented Medicines Price Review Board [...]
Stewart and Bradford: Stiff price controls will hurt Canadians’ access to ground-breaking drugs
From The Ottawa Citizen: "The federal Patented Medicines Price Review Board thinks companies would be happy to sell Canada their new drugs for much less than they get in many other 36 OECD countries. It [...]
Letter to the Prime Minister
May 11, 2021 The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, P.C., M.P. Prime Minister of Canada 80 Wellington St. Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A2 Subject: Delay and reconsider the PMPRB regulations Dear Prime Minister Trudeau, I am [...]
Let’s fight cancer like we’re fighting COVID-19
As we battle the pandemic, we should remember that cancer kills 7,000 Canadians every month and put the same effort into reducing that sad toll. In the three months since COVID-19 started shutting down the [...]
Potential Life-Years Lost: The Impact of the Cancer Drug Regulatory and Funding Process in Canada
Background Canada has an established publicly funded health care system with a complex drug approval and funding process. After proof of efficacy (POE; key publication/presentation) and before becoming publicly accessible, each drug undergoes a Health [...]