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Showing posts from March, 2026

Ontario’s attempts to speed up new cancer drugs shows the need for Critical Illness Insurance

The Government of Ontario recently announced that they are making significant changes to the  availability of high-cost cancer medications.  Under its “Funding Accelerated for Specific  Treatments” (FAST) program, selected cancer drugs will get more public funding a year faster than is  already the case. A three-year pilot initiative, the FAST program aims to fast-track seven to ten high-priority cancer treatments each year. Currently, the following drugs are being funded through this program: Tagrisso ([osimertinib] for lung cancer), Scemblix (for a leukemia variant), Nubeqa (for prostate cancer), Calquence ([acalabrutinib tablets] for lymphoma), Opdivo with Yervoy (for colorectal cancer and for liver cancer).  To this we say, hurray.  However, in our view, this change highlights a few of the problems that cancer patients have to overcome when they receive a cancer diagnosis in Canada. The first problem is access. In Canada, provinces have a hard task: bri...