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Another health group is calling out the B.C. government for being slow to green light drugs that are approved in other provinces in Canada.
The Canadian Gastrointestinal Society says doctors treating inflammatory bowel disease in B.C. are often required to first try older, less effective medications that can have costly side effects.
They can access advanced treatments only if the older medications fail.
“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,” Gail Attara, CEO of the Canadian Gastrointestinal Society told Global News.
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“But the reality is the longer you wait to treat someone, the worse their disease becomes.”
The GI Society claims that in many cases, a doctor will prescribe an older medication and tell the patient to throw it out — sometimes multiple times — to get to the medication they actually need, because the older medications will do more harm than good.
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B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne said the government is always looking at the evidence first.
“Here in B.C., we have one of the most robust pharmacare programs covering a wide range of different pharmaceuticals to help British Columbians,” she said.
“We are always looking at the evidence; we work closely, of course, with the federal government on that.”
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