Access to drugs for cancer: Does where you live matter?

Provincial governments are responsible for administering publicly-funded anti-cancer drug benefit programs in Canada. This study examines inter-provincial variations in not only the content of such programs, but also the policies/processes used when considering a new drug for coverage.

Pharmaceutical manufacturers and provincial/regional cancer boards were surveyed to identify the drugs covered by public drug benefit plans. Kappa coefficients were calculated to determine inter-provincial coverage variations. The comprehensiveness of availability of anti-cancer drugs across the country was also assessed. A semi-structured survey of all 10 provincial/regional cancer board pharmacy and therapeutics (P&T) committees was employed to examine decision-making policies/procedures. It included questions on committee composition and processes and on factors influencing decisions regarding the introduction of new drugs. Completed surveys were analyzed using qualitative and quantitative techniques.

All cancer boards and 75% of manufacturers contacted provided information on drugs covered in each province. Where lists were obtained from both sources, there was full agreement on content. Kappa values calculated ranged from -0.403 to 0.594, indicating poor to moderate agreement on anti-cancer drug coverage between provinces. Only 7 of the 115 drugs were available in all 10 provinces. Regarding decision-making processes, while ratings for both the relative importance and use of factors involved in decision-making (clinical effectiveness, patient preference, etc.) were similar across provinces, those for the relative importance and use of different information types (clinical trials, expert opinion, etc.) varied.

Access to anti-cancer drugs clearly varies across the country. In part, this may be due to differences in the views of P&T committees on the usefulness of information they use in their deliberations.