Looking to interview Canadian patients about Remicade

My name is Kelly Grant and I’m a health reporter with The Globe and Mail, a national newspaper based in Toronto, Canada. I’m researching a story about Remicade, the top-selling drug by revenue in Canada. I’m looking to speak to Canadian Crohn’s and Colitis patients about your experience taking Remicade, particularly about your experience with the company’s BioAdvance patient-assistance program, and with the infusion clinics where you receive your medication. I’m also interested in speaking to you if you are an Ontario patient who has your Remicade costs mostly covered by the Trillium drug program. (But I’m interested in speaking to other Canadian patients, too.) I want to make sure to include the patient experience in any stories I’ll eventually write on this subject.

If you’re interested in speaking with me, I can be reached by e-mail kgrant@globeandmail.com or by phone at 416-585-5334 or 647-688-4214. You can find past examples of my work on my author page at The Globe, where I’m the staff health news reporter. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/authors/kelly-grant/ Thanks for your consideration.

hello and welcome. Thanks for your Interest in IBD.

Im interested in understanding your particular interest on the perception of quality of the service offered by this company and the interest for the general public for this specific company.

Remicade is not the only Biologics on the market, why specifically report on this one?

thanks a lot.

Hello Kelly. I am a parent of a child on another biological drug, Humira, so we don't exactly fit your criteria. However using the Trillium program, and now rolling into Ontario coverage for children under 25...I am interested in following your story. Please post a link if possible when your story is public.

tagging tesscorm

I was on Remicade from Dec 2015 through March 2016. The application process was seamless, and the Ontario Trillium plan picked up the tab. The biggest problem I had was that there was no direct line between the patient and the local infusion clinic here in the north. I had to call Bio Advance down in Toronto Ontario to go through their porthole which was awkward and very inefficient. The infusion clinic was a long travel and I had to rebook my appointment due to weather.
Having said that, the infusion clinic itself was pleasant. But I had to go off of Remicade due to severe and dangerous side effects. It took over 12 months for my health to return. I declined trying other biologics, and now have gone the natural route of controlling diet, stress and using Ginger and Turmeric with good results.

Hi everyone:

Thanks for your responses to my original post. To answer the first question, I'm mainly interested in Remicade because it is the top-selling drug by revenue in Canada and has been for years. I'm interested in learning more about the other biologics, but Remicade stands out as a huge sales juggernaut in Canada in a way that it doesn't in other countries. If any of you would like to speak to me directly about it, feel free to shout me an email: kgrant@globeandmail.com and we'll set something up.

GIs tend to favor Remicade because it has many years of evidence based results compared to the other biologics used for Crohn's Disease. They also have more control over dosing, they can dose by body weight, and increase the frequency of infusions to tweak results. In the recent past, infusions were always done in hospital, so a GI could keep closer tabs on the patients health and results by talking to the infusion nurse or stopping in.
This differs from Humira (another anti-tnf option) in that Humira is an at home injection. It only has 2 dose options and 2 interval options. In Canada it's not approved for pediatric patients under 13.
There may also be other insurance differences between countries that promote one drug over another.
One thought is the availability of a Remicade generic. Sometimes Canada is slower to adopt access to the generic.That might be an angle worth exploring.

Thanks Pilgrim. That's all really helpful to know.

You're welcome. We were given both options and these things were discussed with us at the time.
As far as we were told both major biologics have a similar financial aid program directly from the manufacturer to help with access to the drugs for those who qualify.