Agreement will improve access and affordability of drugs for rare diseases

March 13, 2025 | Whitehorse, Yukon | Health Canada

In Canada, one in 12 people live with a rare disease and for most people affected, the cost of treatment is unaffordable. Canadians deserve a health care system that provides timely access to quality health services and medications, including effective drugs for rare diseases, regardless of where they live or their ability to pay.

Today, the Honourable Mark Holland, Canada’s Minister of Health and the Honourable Tracy-Anne McPhee, Yukon’s Minister of Health and Social Services, announced a bilateral agreement investing over $8.5 million over three years to improve access to selected new drugs for rare disease and to support enhanced access to existing drugs, early diagnosis and screening.

The first step in this bilateral agreement will be to deliver funding, under the National Strategy for Drugs for Rare Diseases, to the territory to provide access to Yescarta, a drug used to treat several forms of relapsed or refractory B-cell lymphomas in adults: follicular lymphoma, large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL), diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), and high-grade B-cell lymphoma (HGBL). Yescarta is a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, a type of immunotherapy that uses a person’s own immune cells to fight cancer.

The names of other drugs on the common list are published online on a drug-by-drug basis following the conclusion of the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance price negotiations for each drug. In addition, the Yukon is committing through this agreement to work with Canada and other provinces and territories on developing and implementing a plan for improving screening and diagnostics for rare diseases.

The Government of Canada remains committed to working with provinces and territories to improve health care for all Canadians, including access to affordable prescription medications, and to achieving better health outcomes for everyone.