The National Joint Oncology Project Team, a collaboration between BIOTECanada and Innovative Medicines Canada (IMC), identifies practical policy solutions that can help Canadians access breakthrough oncology therapies more quickly. As Ontario approaches the one-year mark of its Funding Accelerated for Specific Treatments (FAST) pilot, our team saw an opportunity to examine how this innovative approach is performing and what lessons it may offer for the future of oncology drug access in Canada.
Presented at the Canadian Association for Population Therapeutics (CAPT) Conference, our poster examines the implementation of the FAST pilot and its impact on funding timelines for eligible oncology medicines. The findings are encouraging. Products included in the FAST program were listed in Ontario an average of 53 days after receiving a positive final recommendation from Canada’s Drug Agency (CDA-AMC), compared with an average of approximately 300 days for oncology products following the traditional pathway in 2025. This represents a reduction in time to provincial listing of more than 80%.
While additional experience and evaluation will be important as the program matures, these early results demonstrate the potential of innovative policy approaches to meaningfully shorten the time between reimbursement recommendation and patient access.