13 June 2019 - Ontario joins Saskatchewan and Quebec to give patients with spinal muscular atrophy broader access to Spinraza.

Biogen Canada is pleased to announce that patients in Ontario living with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) now have broader publicly funded access to Spinraza (nusinersen), the first and only treatment approved in Canada for SMA.

This announcement follows the decision in November 2018 to provide publicly funded access for those living with Type I SMA. Ontario has expanded coverage for Spinraza to include the following patients:

• Patients who are pre-symptomatic with two or three copies of the survival motor neuron 2 (SMN2) gene;
• Patients with disease duration of less than six months, two copies of the SMN2 gene, and symptom onset after the first week after birth and on or before seven months of age;
• Patients under the age of 18 with symptom onset after six months of age, who have never achieved the ability to walk independently;
• Other Type II and III patients regardless of ever achieving the ability to walk independently are encouraged to apply for access through their clinicians to be considered on a case by case basis;
• Treatment for adult patients can be approved exceptionally on a case by case basis.

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