A number of members of British Columbia's Expensive Drugs for Rare Diseases committee have resigned following the Charleigh Pollock debacle.The exodus — and immense public backlash — led Premier David Eby to call for a revamping of the process used to determine whether or not patients receive government funding for their medication..BC gov't restores funding for Charleigh Pollock's life-changing medication.Five of the 50 members resigned in the immediate aftermath of Health Minister Josie Osborne's announcement that Pollock would in fact continue to have her Brineura infusions covered, however according to Rob Shaw, that number has now risen to at least 10. Among those who left their post was Dr. Sandra Sirrs. In an interview with the Times Colonist, she claimed that the ministry's decision "systematically undercut the principle of evidence-based medicine."Osborne had initially gone with the committee's recommendation to discontinue Pollock's funding, but reversed course after over a dozen American experts sent a letter urging her to consider all the evidence first..During a press conference in Vancouver on Monday, Eby addressed the issue, admitting that "there's no question in terms of the Charleigh case that the public was not served by the current structure that we have.""The current structure of a committee that doesn't speak to the media, doesn't speak to the public, makes decisions behind closed doors, only speaks to the treating physician, and even then only through the Ministry of Health," he added, "[which] resulted in a scenario where it appeared as though what was happening was the exact opposite of what anybody wants —which is … politicians making decisions about access to medicines."Eby vowed to develop a new process that "works in a way that it's the experts that are making those decisions.""I hope that the experts who are on the committee and who have left the committee are willing to work with us to identify a structure that's going to work for them, but also work for British Columbians in these incredibly difficult cases," he added, noting that more will emerge "as science develops more and more [for] boutique treatments for rare illnesses.".Due to a high level of spam content being posted in our comment section below, all comments undergo manual approval by a staff member during regular business hours (Monday - Friday). Your patience is appreciated.
