Saskatchewan health minister signs on to federal deal for rare disease drugs

Saskatchewan Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill has signed a deal with the federal government to expand access to medication for people with rare diseases.

Cockrill and federal Health Minister Mark Holland signed a bilateral agreement on Friday which will spend more than $40 million to improve access to selected new drugs for rare diseases, and to support enhanced access to existing drugs, early diagnosis and screening.

“This agreement and this partnership with the federal government is important to the ongoing commitment of both the federal and provincial governments to improve access to innovative treatments, early diagnosis and screening and coverage of these high-cost drugs. I look forward to the continued work to improve the health and wellbeing of Saskatchewan residents,” Cockrill said.

The first step in the agreement includes coverage for Poteligeo for treating Sezary syndrome, Oxlumo for hyperoxaluria type 1 and Epkinly for large B-cell lymphoma.

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More drugs will be added in subsequent agreements on a drug-by-drug basis following the conclusion of the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance price negotiations for each drug, according to a federal news release.

Holland says this first step is significant and gets the federal and provincial government one step closer to providing better healthcare outcomes, and a potential path to a provincial pharmacare agreement.

“You take diabetes. We spend over $30 billion a year in diabetes in this country. So much of that cost comes from people not being able to adhere to their regime in terms of the medication they need to take and the things that they need to do in their life,” Holand said.

“I'm talking to doctors who say to me, ‘Why am I even seeing this patient? Because they cannot afford to take the medication that I'm prescribing to them.’ We need to end that."

Cockrill says although those three drugs are already covered by the province, the additional funding will help ensure more people are able to access the medication they need.

“What this agreement today does helps us to ensure that we're expanding coverage and looking at adding more drugs down the road to address other rare diseases that affects children and patients of all age,” Cockrill said.

Saskatchewan is the fourth province to sign the bilateral agreement under the National Strategy for Drugs for Rare Diseases, following agreements with Alberta, B.C. and Newfoundland and Labrador.