EDMONTON (660 NEWS) – Stakeholders accuse Alberta’s UCP government of having a hidden agenda in its move to switch thousands of patients in the province to cheaper drugs.

After a meeting with Health Minister Tyler Shandro about the issue Tuesday, advocates for Crohn’s and Colitis Canada are frustrated and disappointed.

The organization’s president and CEO Mina Mawani says it’s a complete disregard for patients’ health.

“I’m extremely disappointed and disheartened and feel like there just hasn’t been any logical nature to these discussions whatsoever. It’s such an irrational way of working through things which does make us frustrated and it makes me angry that patients are not being consulted,” said Mawani.

READ MORE: Crohn’s and colitis patients fear drug change by UCP government

Lead expert in the field of inflammatory bowel diseases, Dr. Remo Panaccione also attended the meeting as an advocate. He says their concerns fell on deaf ears and he’s never encountered such a level of disrespect from government.

“As an individual physician who’s been practicing in this field for twenty years, I feel sort of handcuffed that I can’t practice the best medicine possible, in this province,” said Panaccione.

“You know, there are only a few options: [patients]… absorb the out-of-pocket expense to stay on a medication that has transformed their lives or they make a decision to move to a different jurisdiction that doesn’t have this policy. And as a physician, you know, we really need to rethink whether this is the environment that you want to practice in.”

He says the province claims biosimilar drugs are cheaper however, Panaccione says, that’s not true.

He says the drugs are also not the same as generics and could cause relapse in patients and, in some cases, even result in death.

Both Panaccione and Mawani say the government refused to tell them anything else about the reasons for the move unless they signed a non-disclosure agreement. They refused.

Panaccione says the move to switch to biosimilars, which they believe the province is poised to do, would have widespread implications. He says it could affect tens of thousands of others who rely on drugs every day for everything from cancer to rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis.

Shandro has yet to respond to a request for comment.

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