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The province is covering the cost of a medication that helps treat ALS.
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Province to fund ALS relief drug
Published 11:58 PDT, Fri August 14, 2020
Last Updated: 3:33 PDT, Fri August 14, 2020
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People living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, commonly called Lou Gehrig’s disease) will receive provincial support starting next week.
As of Aug. 19, the BC Health Ministry will begin providing coverage of edaravone, or Radicava. The medication normally costs around $120,000 per patient each year. In one clinical trial, edaravone helped slow the worsening of this disease in a select ALS patient subpopulation.
In BC, approximately 480 people have been diagnosed with ALS. ALS is a fatal neurodegenerative disease where patients typically become unable to move, speak, swallow and breathe as the condition progresses.
Edaravone has been under pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance negotiation since September 2019. The negotiations between the manufacturer, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation, and the pharmaceutical alliance meet BC’s cost-related mandate.
“The offer from Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation meets British Columbia’s criteria, which is great news for patients suffering from this deadly disease,” said Health Minister Adrian Dix. “BC will continue to support ALS patients through its expansion of coverage of life-changing drugs and research funding to improve the lives of British Columbians.”
It is expected that between 66 to 183 patients will benefit from the coverage in the first year. To further support patients living with ALS throughout the province, the ALS Society of British Columbia has raised $1 million and the BC government has provided $1 million to match that effort.
“The work of the ALS Society of BC helps provide care to patients, supports clinical trials and research,” Dix said. “This organization has done extraordinary things to enable patients to participate in their care, prolong survival, and improve well-being, and we are happy to support them in that great work.”
The combined $2 million will be used over the next five years to develop an ALS centre of excellence in Vancouver that will not only serve patients in the Vancouver area, but also provincewide through mobile clinics.
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