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Though Health Canada has now approved what is considered a miracle drug for hepatitis C treatment, there remain significant barriers to receiving timely treatment.
The drug, Epclusa, was approved earlier this week by the federal health agency to much fanfare from doctors across the country. The drug, which has shown to eliminate all strains of hepatitis C from the body, is to be taken once daily for 12 weeks, which according to The Canadian Press comes at a cost of $60,000 per round.
But locally, the excitement is tempered among concerns about access to the medication.
It is suspected in Thunder Bay at least one in every 50 people, as many has 3,000, are infected with hepatitis C. Those numbers are among the highest in Ontario and are on the rise, with as many as 200 new reported annual cases for each of the last few years.
Eric Shih, Elevate NWO director of education and community development, said hepatitis C medications are not automatically covered by Ministry of Health and that patients have to apply to the province or private insurance companies to pay for the treatment.
“The reality is it’s not really an issue of the medications or technologies. A lot of the problems are access,” Shih said, adding there is currently a five-month backlog of approved applications. “Even though this is coming online, it doesn’t necessarily speed up how quickly people have access to the medication and treatments.”