Bridging the Last Kilometre: Moving Medicines from Reimbursement to Patient Access

Traditionally, the market access pathway for new medicines in Canada started with regulatory approval by Health Canada, moved on to HTA review from CDA-AMC and INESSS, progressed through pCPA price negotiation and then ended with individual formulary listings.

However, there is a widespread and growing recognition that a listing agreement BY ITSELF is not sufficient to guarantee patient and clinician access to many of the most complex and innovative therapies.

For the value of a new therapy to be FULLY unlocked, health systems need to be ready to address any barriers to implementation that will inadvertently delay uptake - from rigid physician fee codes and insufficient infusion capacity, to a shortage of diagnostic imaging and fragmented cold chains. Too often, these implementation barriers are only identified and addressed after a new therapy comes to market, which means too many new medicines are still taking too long to reach the patients and care teams that need them.

On February 11th, 2026, The Resilient Healthcare Coalition hosted a conversation on the critical issue of “System Readiness” by bringing together a panel of system leaders, patients voices and industry representatives to discuss not only WHY improving system readiness is a critical final step in achieving real market access to new medicines; but also HOW the key players involved can work together to achieve this critical, shared objective.