Make meds accessible

Re: Canadian euthanasia gets dark, Chris Selley, Nov. 26

As an oncologist and patient advocate, we have seen patients benefit from MAID. But we are also concerned. Some Canadians with lethal diseases may access new medications that allow them to live longer with high quality life. Others are unable to access these therapies due to a lack of funds and choose MAID rather than suffering.

Most Canadians rely on public funding to pay for expensive medications. Canadians have worse publicly funded access to effective new drugs than patients in many other countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Agencies responsible for accessing these drugs — e.g., the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH), the pan-canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance and the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) — have prioritized cost over access. Consequently, Canadians with lethal diseases who might have benefitted from effective new drugs in another OECD country instead suffer and opt for MAID. No wonder MAID is such a “success” in Canada.

Not all Canadians are denied access to effective agents. Public servants (e.g., CADTH and PMPRB members, parliamentarians, etc.) may have gold-plated “private” drug insurance that gives them access to drugs other Canadians are unable to afford.

This must stop. All Canadians

need access to effective therapy. MAID should not be a next-best option. David J. Stewart, MD; Johnpeter Bradford, CEO of LSTN, the Life-saving Therapies Network, Ottawa