Ontario is expanding funding of one of the world’s most expensive drugs to cover sufferers of a life-threatening genetic disease that damages vital organs, a move that counts as a victory for patients but raises questions about how provincial governments decide which high-priced medications to pay for.

Ontario’s Health Minister announced Wednesday morning that the government would extend funding of the drug Soliris on an “interim” basis to some patients with atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS), a disorder that affects about 30 people in Ontario and fewer than 100 across Canada.

The medication can cost more than $700,000 per year for aHUS sufferers, an eye-popping price that has prompted Canada’s federal drug-price regulator to call a rare public hearing into why a Connecticut-based drug company is allegedly charging more for Soliris here than in other well-off countries, including the United States.

The Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) stipulates that drug companies cannot sell their products in Canada for the top price among seven comparator nations.

“We consider it our golden rule,” said Doug Clark, the executive director of the board. “The circumstances of this case are that Soliris has been priced higher in Canada than in any of those other seven countries since 2012.”

The company that makes Soliris, Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc., plans to “vigorously challenge” the regulator’s allegations, saying the suggestion that it charged an excessive price for Soliris in Canada is “simply wrong, and not based on sound reasoning.”

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