{"id":930008,"date":"2026-10-12T08:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T08:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/930008\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T08:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T08:08:11","slug":"ontario-cancer-patient-latest-to-be-denied-provincial-drug-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/930008\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario cancer patient latest to be denied provincial drug funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Canadian woman says issues in the healthcare system are costing her hundreds of thousands of dollars to get treatment. CTV News Toronto\u2019s Jon Woodward reports <\/p>\n

Another patient with a rare disease has come forward, saying the Ontario government\u2019s new policy to deny funding for most out of country drugs that haven\u2019t already been approved in Canada could mean she could die after she runs out of money to pay for her treatment.<\/p>\n

Toronto resident Holly Wardlow says she has already spent close to half a million dollars and wiped out her savings, paying for a drug that costs $78,000 a month for her rare liver cancer. The goal of this medication is to reduce the size of a cancerous tumour so it can be surgically removed.<\/p>\n

Wardlow, an anthropology professor at the University of Toronto, says she was devastated to learn she had been turned down by a public program designed to help patients in unusual and life-threatening circumstances.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s scary and it\u2019s sad,\u201d she said in an interview with CTV News Toronto.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like the Ontario government just told me to just go die already, that\u2019s what it feels like.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Holly Wardlow, cancer patient Toronto resident and liver cancer patient Holly Wardlow is pictured. (Supplied) <\/p>\n

When approached by CTV News, Ontario\u2019s health ministry pointed to a policy announced last week that it would change regulation 552 of the Health Insurance Act to only fund drug treatments that have gone through provincial approvals.<\/p>\n

The province said allowing the old regulation to stand \u201ccould cost the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) $5.2 billion each year and would create a back door for global pharmaceutical companies to avoid negotiating directly with the province to achieve more competitive pricing.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t immediately clear how the $5.2 billion figure had been arrived at. <\/p>\n

The new policy was announced after another patient, Alex Schved, won a court battle seeking funding to receive tumour-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy in Florida at a cost of US$600,000.<\/p>\n

\"\"Alex Shved, left, and Agata Zieba pose with their two daughters in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Handout – Alex Shved (Mandatory Credit) Alex Shved, left, and Agata Zieba pose with their two daughters in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Handout – Alex Shved (Mandatory Credit) <\/p>\n

The Divisional Court found OHIP offered no basis for denying Schved coverage and ordered the government to reconsider his case. But with the new regulation, it appears that Schved will not be covered.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Ontario narrows out-of-country drug funding rules after cancer patient court victory<\/a><\/p>\n

Wardlow has a rare NRG1 fusion cholangiocarcinoma. Only about five Ontarians a year get diagnosed with that form of the disease. <\/p>\n

Bizengri, which is the brand name for the drug known as zenocutuzumab, was approved under Health Canada\u2019s Special Access Program for Wardlow\u2019s treatment but has not received wider approvals.<\/p>\n

In order for that process to happen, the manufacturer, Partner Therapeutics (PTx), would need to submit an application to Health Canada.<\/p>\n

However in a letter to Wardlow, the company\u2019s chief development officer, Pritesh Gandhi, said it had no plans to do that in at least two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt present, the scope of PTx\u2019s development and regulatory activities for Bizengri is focused in the United States,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Bizengri cancer drug Bizengri, which is the brand name for the cancer drug known as zenocutuzumab, is pictured. (Supplied) <\/p>\n

Wardlow had done eight cycles of chemotherapy and immunotherapy, which did shrink the tumour somewhat but not enough to operate on it and remove it entirely.<\/p>\n

However, her doctors discovered that the cancer\u2019s rare NRG1 mutation meant that it could be targeted with Bizengri.<\/p>\n

\u201cPatients have a much better quality of life than chemotherapy and it\u2019s more effective so it\u2019s a really nice option,\u201d said Dr. James Cleary, a medical oncologist at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston who studies the drug.<\/p>\n

Since Wardlow started taking the drug in April, she has seen a marked shrinking of her tumour and her side effects have all but disappeared, she said, but that can only last as long as she can pay for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo ultimately it is costing us about $78,000 a month. And we\u2019ve been doing this since mid-April, and we\u2019re running out. And I\u2019m lucky my parents have paid for a dose. My brother has paid for a dose,\u201d said Wardlow, who has started a crowdfunding page, which as of Sunday has raised just over $57,000 \u2013 almost enough for another month.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear what will happen after that. <\/p>\n

In Wardlow\u2019s application to the Case by Case Review Program at Cancer Care Ontario, her doctor said she could live for \u201capproximately one year.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Bizengri, \u201ca dramatic response could convert to curative intent surgery,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope they would see it through the lens that this is a rare disease and I think we have an obligation to also take care of people with rare disease, just like we have an obligation to take care of people with common cancers,\u201d Cleary said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Holly Wardlow, cancer drug Bizengri Toronto resident Holly Wardlow, right, is pictured next to Bizengri, a medication she needs to reduce reduce the size of a cancerous tumour in her liver so it can be surgically removed. This medication costs costs her $78,000 a month. (Supplied) <\/p>\n

Wardlow says she has cried a lot thinking about death. She has a mantlepiece full of supportive cards from friends and family and a bracelet with the words \u201cjust keep swimming,\u201d from the Pixar movie Finding Nemo.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to remind myself that I\u2019ve had a really good life, that I have very close relationships with my family, that I wanted a career that could be kind of adventurous,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I\u2019ve had, I think, an important impact on the small part of my field where I can have an impact. I\u2019ve been a good teacher to my students. I\u2019ve travelled to places that are wonderful. So I\u2019ve had a good life, and so I tried to remind myself just to be really happy about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Canadian woman says issues in the healthcare system are costing her hundreds of thousands of dollars to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":930009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[712,49,48,84,392],"class_list":["post-930008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/930009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}