When Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky delivers good news to seriously ill people, he shouldn’t play favourites.
Certain patients — in this case women with advanced breast cancer — had to jump through time-consuming hoops to get a promising costly drug treatment approved, but on the weekend the minister fast-tracked a different expensive drug to help a young boy.
Amidst her own personal trials with advanced (stage 4) breast cancer, Red Deer’s Brenda Odovichuc, 33, has also found the strength to fight a public battle with the province.
That battle was for the province to approve funding for an expensive, potentially life-saving breast cancer treatment that would drain the financial resources of most people.
Quietly, the province finally decided to fully fund Tykerb (also known as Lapatinib), which is used in the treatment of women like Odovichuc who have aggressive HER2 positive breast cancer. The five-year survival rate is only 26 per cent.
Tykerb, when taken with a chemotherapy treatment called Xeloda, slows cancer growth in some cases. In one case mentioned by the Canadian Breast Cancer Network, an Edmonton woman has successfully been treated with Tykerb for the past six years.
Zwozdesky called Odovichuc at home about 10 days ago to tell her the drug was going to be fully funded, effectively immediately. He also called another woman with the same disease, Kelly Mah of Edmonton, who had also brought publicity to the issue after she became aware of Odovichuc’s petition.
The funding, which kicks in immediately, will cover the drug’s cost for 47 women in Alberta identified with the disease. The cost will be $750,000 this year — Tykerb costs about $4,000 per month for each woman.
Last October, Odovichuc started an online petition calling for the drug to be fully funded by the province. For those who wanted to actually sign paper, she left a clipboard inside a Rubbermaid container on her front step.
On Monday, Odovichuc told me that she was delighted with the funding. She had taken Tykerb since last fall, partially paid for through her own health benefit plan. She did not want to say how much was covered but it was still expensive to cover the difference.
Ultimately, Tykerb did not benefit Odovichuc, she said. She has just finished a round of radiation treatment, as the cancer has now spread to her brain.
But it’s still a very effective drug and has helped other woman, she says. Several other provinces approved the drug before Alberta finally gave the OK.
“It’s such a relief,” said Odovichuc, because it means that women won’t have to be potentially bankrupting their families in order to receive the treatment.
She wonders how many women had to make the financial decision to not take Tykerb because they could not afford it.
Odovichuc continues to live a very functional life. “I’m hopeful,” she says.
Her efforts to publicize the issue helped the province make the right decision. Odovichuc is the first to say she doesn’t want any credit but it seems especially appropriate to recognize her today — International Women’s Day.
Meanwhile, the issues that surround the province’s funding of expensive treatments have suddenly became quite muddy.
When Odovichuc began her battle, Alberta Health and Wellness said it “follows the same standardized, evidence-based process for Tykerb. . . .”
“From the time the drug is submitted, it takes four to six months to complete the Joint Oncology Drug Review and Alberta Health Service committee reviews. Assuming the review proceeds as usual, the recommendation should be available shortly for consideration,” a government spokesman said last October.
But on the weekend, Zwozdesky announced the province will pay for the expensive treatment of a Grande Prairie boy who suffers from an autoimmune disease called Job’s Syndrome.
Like the minister said, it’s the right thing to do. The immune disorder causes infections, rashes and open sores and is quite painful. His mother’s insurance stopped covering the $3,000-per-month cost that nine-year-old Ethan Richarde needs to treat the disease. She couldn’t afford the treatment herself.
The mother visited Zwozdesky at the legislature on Sunday. The media were informed.
“I understood that the child was in enormous pain on a daily, hourly basis,” he said. “So I immediately had my officials look into the matter,” he told an Edmonton newspaper.
His ministry spent the previous three days studying the drug Xolair and looking for experts to evaluate its safety.
“We’re going to fund it,” he said. “Now we need the pharmaceutical and medical evidence,” the minister said.
So why would one case be fast-tracked while another isn’t?
Apparently the news value of a suffering little boy outweighs that of women with breast cancer.
Mary-Ann Barr is the Advocate’s assistant city editor. She can be reached by email at barr@www.reddeeradvocate.com or by phone at 403-314-4332.