24 June 2018 - When Canada’s health ministers sit down together on Thursday and Friday in Winnipeg, talks are expected to revolve around Ottawa’s development of a national pharmacare plan. B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix wants that plan to include a mechanism to grapple with expensive drugs for rare diseases – a fast-growing cost pressure on the public purse.

Conveniently, Health Canada has just provided him with fresh ammunition. Mr. Dix will present the case of Procysbi, one such costly drug for a rare disease approved by Health Canada. It costs 60 times more than a similar, though older, treatment.

Selling treatments for very rare diseases is a growing share of the pharmaceutical industry, with vast profits to be had in catering to so-called orphan diseases. As a result, it’s a growing challenge for those who pick up the tab – patients, the provinces or private medical plans.

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