Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I have questions for the Minister of Health and it’s going to deal with pharmaceutical and prescription drugs, and I’ll be very easy on the Minister, Mr. Speaker.
The term “off-label use” is a term used in the industry where it means a drug has been discovered to have properties of use or therapeutic use for something that was outside of its intended use. In a lot of cases, drug companies don’t go to the case of actually making proof of claim because of costs. Drug benefits such as Blue Cross, extended health will look at this synopsis and make their decision whether a drug is covered or not. So again, off-label use does have a merit out in practice.
My question for the Minister is: Does the department have a program in place to deal with the therapeutic advantage of using off-label drugs for therapy and is there a process in place for people in the Northwest Territories to go to get these prescriptions covered? Thank you.