The Canadian Gastrointestinal Society (CGS) is calling out the B.C. government for its slow approval process for advanced inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) drugs. The society states that doctors in B.C. are often mandated to try older, less effective medications with significant side effects before accessing newer, more advanced therapies.
"I guess the government calls it cost savings because they don’t want to pay the big price of these advanced therapies that are more expensive," stated Gail Attara, CEO of the CGS. The society claims that in some instances, patients are instructed to discard prescribed older medications multiple times to demonstrate their ineffectiveness before being allowed access to the treatments they actually need, as the older drugs can cause more harm than good.
B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne responded that the province has a robust pharmacare program and that the government consistently reviews evidence. "We are always looking at the evidence; we work closely, of course, with the federal government on that," she said.