Posted by Michael Wonder on 17 Jun 2019
Patient with rare disease pleads for life-saving drug funding
17 June 2019 - 'You wait five years for the diagnosis, then they tell you, 'We're not going to fund you.'
It took five years for Ronald Laberge to be diagnosed with a life-threatening autoimmune disease that has left him riddled with infection, and it came none too soon.
In December 2018, Laberge was emaciated, in pain and close to death.
One of the few Canadian doctors familiar with his rare condition — immunodeficiency with anti-interferon-gamma autoantibodies — recommended rituximab, a cancer and arthritis drug sold under the brand name Rituxan.
