February 7, 2025
“Long wait for cancer drug approvals causing ‘great anguish’ among patients, doctors”
Potentially life-saving treatments delayed by bureaucracy, doctors say
In April 2017, Glenn Hussey went to The Ottawa Hospital for a regular checkup to monitor his smouldering multiple myeloma — a precursor to the rare blood plasma cancer multiple myeloma.
He’d been going every few months for more than a decade. But this time, he remembers his doctor saying: “Everything has changed.”
[…]
Since beginning treatment, Hussey said he’s faced barriers in accessing the drugs he needed — a problem he says is all too common among cancer patients in Canada, where long waits for drug approvals mean many die waiting for medication that’s readily available in other developed nations.