Provinces told to pay for eye drug

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In a reversal of an earlier decision, a federal body is telling all provinces to pay for an expensive eye treatment that fights macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness in Canada, on the condition coverage be reviewed and possibly stopped if new evidence shows that a widely used, cheaper alternative is equally effective.
The Common Drug Review, a body that recommends whether drugs merit provincial coverage, also said yesterday governments should pay for only 15 injections of eye drug Lucentis per patient, even though many people need to receive monthly treatments for an indefinite period to fight the wet form of macular degeneration, a progressive eye disease.

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