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QUESTION PERIOD — Health

Pharmaceutical Drugs

June 22, 2023


Senator Gold, in October 2022, Lilly pharmaceuticals stopped making Glucagon. No one was told — not drugstores, nor the millions of diabetics for whom this is a life-saving medication. They said it was on back order. They eventually replaced the product with a nasal spray that has horrific side effects. My adult niece nearly died three nights ago from choking on her own blood. Novo Nordisk makes a similar product called GlucaGen, but they cannot handle the extreme increase in demand for prescriptions. According to Novo Nordisk, they have been asking Health Canada to bring this product in from the United States to help save lives, as even Canadian hospitals have not been able to secure the product for life-saving measures, as my niece discovered three nights ago.

Senator Gold, can you please beg the Minister of Health and Health Canada to approve the import of the replacement product from the U.S. before someone dies? I’m not asking for an answer from you. Please just raise this as an urgent matter. Thank you.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate) [ + ]

I certainly will. I’m so sorry to hear what your niece had to go through. Thank goodness that she survived the ordeal.

I certainly will do everything I can to bring this to the minister’s attention.

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