Ontario government aims to fast-track cancer drugs in new pilot project

Canada has one of the slowest rates of getting new medications to patients because of the length of time for approval as well as negotiations with pharmaceutical companies — which in some cases can be up to two years longer than other countries.

Last summer, Ford said the issue would be a priority for him as chair of the Council of the Federation, but is now saying Ontario will go it alone with a new, three-year pilot that in essence will combine the approval and negotiation stages.

“Ensuring timely patient access to new and life-saving medicines is a fundamental priority we all share,” Health Minister Sylvia Jones wrote in a letter to her provincial and territorial counterparts.

While other provinces are on board with the idea, there are “jurisdictional concerns” so Ontario plans to move ahead on its own, she said.

“For Ontario, this was a very clear priority identified by Premier Doug Ford at the 2024 Summer Council of the Federation (COF) meeting in Nova Scotia. Since then, my officials have explored multiple implementation options, guided by a patient-first approach. With this in mind, Ontario intends to proceed with the pilot project beginning in Spring 2025,” Jones wrote.

“Patient access to life-saving medicines remains our paramount concern. At the same time, we are committed to ensuring that appropriate guardrails are in place to address any concerns and uphold shared standards of safety, cost-effectiveness and equity.”

Ontario’s move comes amid promises from Ottawa to also address the delay.

During the election, Prime Minister Mark Carney pledged that, if elected, his government would “significantly reduce wait times for life-saving medications … Canadian patients wait too long for public access to medicines following Health Canada approval, putting us behind other G7 countries” and promised to cut red tape without compromising safety.

The Ontario pilot will include “select high priority cancer drugs” that are approved and part of Project Orbis, an international effort to co-ordinate efforts between countries to get medications approved and fast-tracked out to patients. 

In Canada, it can take up to two years to get medications approved and out to the public, when other countries can do it in half the time.

In a letter last year to the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance, founded by the country’s premiers, Ford noted that “Canada currently ranks last in the G7 in the time it takes to approve and provide patients access to innovative and often life-saving medicines.”

“This needs to change,” Ford wrote. “We owe it to Canadians to do everything we can to give them the same timely access to life-changing treatments as patients in the rest of the world.”

Experts, however, have said the holdup is often pharmaceutical companies, who choose when to apply for a drug to enter a market, and given Canada’s size — it is the ninth largest market after counties such as the U.S., Europe and Japan — it is often not a priority. 

After Health Canada approval, provincial governments negotiate a price together through a lengthy assessment process. 

Experts had said more resources to ensure priority approval could help ease that wait time. 

Cancer groups have been urging governments to act, saying patients are desperate for life-saving treatments.

The issue is personal for Ford, who lost his younger brother Rob Ford, a former Toronto mayor, to cancer almost a decade ago.