Improve Access to Essential TB Medicines in Canada

Despite being preventable and treatable, tuberculosis (TB) remains the world’s leading infectious disease. People in Canada continue to face unacceptable delays in accessing the TB medicines they need. Stop TB Canada and partners are calling on the Government of Canada to to take urgent action to ensure timely, affordable, and equitable access to TB drugs for all.

Barriers to Accessing TB Medicines in Canada

Despite being a wealthy country with a strong public health system, people in Canada continue to face significant barriers in accessing essential TB medicines. People with TB, particularly children and those with drug-resistant TB, often face delays, drug shortages, and limited treatment options that undermine their quality of care and put them at greater risk for complications and poor outcomes.

Stop TB Canada’s latest report revealed persistent barriers that are delaying timely TB treatment, including:

  • Frequent drug shortages and an unstable supply of key medications

  • Lack of pediatric formulations, leaving children without appropriate treatment

  • Wait times of up to 4 months for accessing WHO-recommended drugs

  • Complex, fragmented regulatory pathways that slow down drug procurement

  • Patient hesitancy to take drugs not approved by Health Canada

These barriers delay treatment, increase hospitalization, prolong infectiousness, and worsen health outcomes—especially for people in Indigenous and immigrant communities who are disproportionately affected by TB.

While global TB treatment standards have advanced significantly, these innovations are not reaching people in Canada. WHO-endorsed regimens that are shorter, safer, and more effective are still unavailable or difficult to access here, undermining efforts to end TB.

A Step Forward: Better Access to Pretomanid

Stop TB Canada is encouraged by recent progress in speeding access to pretomanid, a new drug and component of the BPaL/M regimen, which the WHO has recommended for almost all forms of DR-TB. By working with non-profit drug developer TB Alliance which developed the new treatment, and manufacturer Viatris, Stop TB Canada has ensured procurement times in Canada are reduced from about 30 days to one week—a critical improvement that will help patients start life-saving treatment without dangerous delays.

While this is an important step forward, many other essential TB medicines remain difficult to access due to regulatory and supply barriers. Continued government action is needed to ensure all Canadians have consistent, timely access to the full range of WHO-approved TB treatments.

The Ask

We call on the Government of Canada to take urgent action to remove barriers and ensure timely, equitable access to all essential tuberculosis medicines for people in Canada.

Stop TB Canada is calling on federal policymakers to:

  • Establish clear obligations and incentives for the pharmaceutical industry to market essential TB medicines, including pediatric formulations, in Canada.

  • Simplify and expedite the approval process for non-marketed TB drugs to reduce treatment delays.

  • Develop a national procurement strategy to ensure a stable, continuous supply of TB medicines, including a centralized stockpile and a standardized system to track and manage drug shortages.

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