About Access How does access work? Just because Health Canada approves a drug doesn’t mean you get access to it right away. In fact, if you rely on a federal or provincial drug plan, it could take months or years for a new medicine you may need to be reimbursed under your plan, if at all. After a medicine is deemed safe and effective by Health Canada it is usually reviewed by the Canadian Expert Drug Advisory Committee (CEDAC) of the Common Drug Review (CDR). The CDR process looks at the medication and makes a recommendation on whether or not public drug plans in Canada should add the medicine to their plans. Once a recommendation “list”, “not to list” or “list as similar” is made by the Common Drug Review, each province or public drug plan then reviews the information again and makes its own decision on whether or not to reimburse a medication. Québec does not participate in the CDR but was included in this study to complete the analysis and permit a full comparison of reimbursement behavior by province. Québec conducts independent reviews and manages its own drug formularies regardless of CEDAC recommendations. These multiple reviews can take up to two years or more and too often the final decision is not to cover the cost of a medication, adding another burden to the patients who rely on new medications to help them survive or lead a better life.