need help of the Canadians on here please

[debaroo]

Hi all my nurse just got back from a big diabetes forom for Canada and shes saying lantus is still not going to be here in Canada for sometime...seems the goverment cant get it together to come up with a price its comparing lantus to nph or another slow acting insulin...if everyone could pleae write to George Smitherman the new person head over health and state why we need this insulin here i think it would be greatly appreciated..thanks:cool:

[Shalyndria]

Hi Deb :)
I'd be glad to write. Do you have a mailing address/email address? I could prob rustle it up myself but I'm feeling rather lazy right now..... :rolleyes:

Ah, gotta love Health Canada :mad:

Shy

[debaroo]

Hey Shy sure thing ill be posting one here and thanks sooo much i should have it on here tomorrow

[rzrbks]

Maybe all of us here should write to him and explain about how he should be helpin' those of us with diabetes and how he doesn't want to be know as.............oops:whistling

Well anyway maybe we all should write.

[bel4_20]

I'm in also post that link, I have been waiting for awhile for Lantus and now there pulling this?! http://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5E/t/steamed.gif

[debaroo]

Hey all thanks for the great posts i called the MPP office and they give me the addy to mail or an email addy so here they are i hope i took them down correctly (im sure i did)

gsmitherman.mpp@liberial.ola.org

better just do the email one im missing part of the address

[Andrea]

Lantus has been completely approved by Health Canada for well over a year now. Last i heard, it wa AVENTIS that was slow on the uptake.

Andrea

[debaroo]

Well Lantus might be approved but the government is slowing up the release of it because of pricing it...my endo and nurse were at the huge diabetes in Quebec city a few weeks back and she did say that there is no date of its release here due to the pricing thing with the goverment...so she suggested i tell everyone i can to write the health minister about this

[Shalyndria]

OK deb, one email off to the devil's follower. ;) I hope that we can get enough Canadian support to see Lantus reach the market in record time!

I'm wondering if it might be more effective for those of us outside of Ontario to write our own Minister's of Health, or even the Federal Minister or Deputy Minister?

:topic: Andrea, great to see you again :D

Shy

[Andrea]

Thanks Shy,

This Lantus story still kills me. Lantus has been used in some countries since 2001. We are almost in 2005 and it is still not available to canadians. I know some people in Ontario who have their doctors write lantus prescriptions and they go across the boarder to buy thier insulin in the US.

One more reason that everyone should go on the pump!! ;) That way we no longer have to deal with long acting insulins!!

Andrea

[rzrbks]

Will it help if he gets e-mail from ouotside of Canada?

[debaroo]

Hey guys sorry for not getting back and yes i think everyone should email george smitherman no matter where you are, and shy yess others in other provinces as well ...i really appreciate the help with this ...im hoping in a short period of time lantus will be here to

[Shalyndria]

OK Deb, I emailed Gary Mar (Alberta's Minister) as well as the Federal Minister. If anyone wants to email the Fed. Minister themselves, go to the Health Canada (http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/english/media/minister/index.html) website that I've linked, and there's an email page. I have my doubts about anything reaching this guy (I'm sure he's got staff that reads his email or something lol) but it's worth a shot :)


rzr, I doubt that an email from outside of Canada would do much good lol, but it's very nice of you to ask :D Hmmm, though, you wouldn't have to say where you're from.......

Oh, I forgot to mention on my last post, there's a typo in the posted email for this man. I C+P'd and couldn't figure out why it had been sent back to me lol. If anyone else does this, just remove the extra "i" from "Liberal" and it's good to go!

Shy

[debaroo]

Sorry about the typo man i hate that ..hence the bad eye sight and bad spelling do not make a good match LOL..anyways heres the right addy with no type os LOL


gsmitherman.mpp@liberal.ola.org

[David]

If Canadian officials are anything like US officials, old fashioned paper mail and phone calls make more of an impression on them than emails do. A classmate of mine works in a Congressman's office. He told me that one paper letter means as much as 50 emails and a phone call follow up adds 25 to that. Taking the time to compose and write a letter, address an envelope, buy a stamp and mail it shows that you believe enough in an issue to put effort into it. It takes no money and only a few seconds to fire off an email. A follow-up phone call helps because talking to them helps make you a real person in their mind. It's harder to brush off or ignore someone you're talking to.
David

[debaroo]

Thanks David and ill post the address on here this week

[Shalyndria]

David, thanks for the suggestion. I have my doubts about giving follow-up phone calls though. Working in Health Care has shown me that the "head honcho's" of Health Canada are very hard to reach by phone. I've emailed my own minister once before (with regards to provincial coverage matters) and had very positive results.

However, if one is going to send a paper letter, then I suggest marking it "Private & Confidential". In my experience, these ppl do not open their own mail, and marking it as such ensures that the person it is addressed to opens it.

I can certainly post the mailing address for the Federal Minister if anyone would like :) . It's also on the Health Canada webpage that I linked in my previous post.

Shy

[Shalyndria]

OK I got the following reply:

Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2004 12:26 PM
To: *edited* (heheh)
Subject: email to Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care

Dear Ms. *edited*:

Thank you for your e-mail to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care about
the drug Lantus.

Health Canada is responsible for approving a drug for market in Canada. You
may wish to bring your concerns about the approval process to its attention
at:

Health Canada
Therapeutic Products Directorate
Holland Cross, Tower B
1600 Scott Street, 3rd Floor
Ottawa ON K1A 1B6

Thank you for bringing this matter to the attention of the Ministry of
Health and Long-Term Care.

Corporate Correspondence Unit
Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care

OK so tomorrow I'll be mailing a letter. So that they can send me a letter back telling me that someone else is the responsible party and I need to kiss that groups' feet. :rolleyes:

Ah well worth a shot.

Shy

[Shalyndria]

Well the Minister of Health finally responded to my email letter. This is what I got:


Subject: In Response to your correspondence addressed to the Minister of
Health

Dear Ms. *Thang*: ;)

Thank you for your correspondence of November 21, 2004,
concerning the availability of the drug Lantus (insulin glargine
injection) in Canada.

The drug Lantus manufactured by Aventis Pharma Incorporated,
is approved in Canada. A Notice of Compliance was issued by Health
Canada on April 3, 2002. Manufacturers usually launch their product
shortly after approval, but, on occasion, they delay the launch for any
number of reasons, as was the case for Lantus. The manufacturer delayed
launching the product in Canada and, as a result, patients who
anticipated access to the drug have been disappointed.

Aventis has confirmed that their full market launch of
Lantus was not scheduled until the end of 2004 or early 2005. However,
the product is "market notified" because they have commercial stock
available, and it has been distributed on a limited basis. At the
moment, access is restricted to patients coming off clinical trials (CT)
who were well maintained on therapy and, on a case-by-case basis, to
non-CT patients who cannot be maintained on other marketed therapies.
Thus, the product is available on the market, but Aventis retains
control over its distribution because of limited supplies. Patients and
their physicians can contact Aventis to discuss availability for
exceptional cases.

You may wish to contact Aventis Pharma Incorporated at 1-800
363-6364 for more detail on exceptional access to the product prior to
full market launch.

I appreciate having had your concerns on this matter brought
to my attention.

Yours sincerely,

Ujjal Dosanjh


Sounds to me like anyone who's got a good Doctor who's willing to go to bat for you on this might be able to get and Rx for Lantus on a non-CT basis. Deb, if you're really interested in going on Lantus, then I would suggest you print this letter out (or I could forward it to you via email if you'd like, let me know) and take it to your doc and ask him/her if he/she is willing to help you get your foot in the door.

Hope this helps :)

Shy

[debaroo]

hey shy thanks for the letter could you please email me that i have to see my diabetes doc jan 20 this is a great letter and thank you for helping me with his ive still not heard back from george smithermon not sure why..anways my email is samsonn94@hotmail.com i would so appreciate this letter thanks again soo much

[Shalyndria]

No problem at all, deb :D Just glad I could help!!

I've emailed the letter to you. I was quite surprised myself that I got such a quick response from the Minister of Health. I hope that it helps you.

Let us know how it goes!
Shy