From CTV, July 1, 2005:

For Mississauga, Ont. resident Mario Codispoti, each moment with his family is more precious than ever. Five years ago, he was diagnosed with colorectal cancer, one of the leading causes of cancer death in this country.

This January, Codispoti’s doctor told him his only hope for extending life was to be treated with the drug Erbitux, which has been proven to slow tumour growth in some patients.

Trouble is, Erbitux hasn’t been approved yet for use in Canada.

It’s been available for colorectal cancer patients in the U.S. and the E.U. for a year, and is showing encouraging results. Due to Canada’s slow drug approval process, though, it’s stuck in a backlog here. So Codispoti’s doctor advised him to seek treatment in Italy, his country of birth.

Codispoti has just returned from his latest Erbitux treatment session there. He and his wife Antonia are outraged that he had to travel so far to get a drug he desperately needs, after living in Canada and paying into Canada’s health care system for four decades.

“It’s unbelievable; unbelievable that I had to go back,” says Codispoti.

Read the rest.