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Toronto-area pharmacist with rare disease pleads with Ontario for access to life-saving drug
COVID-19 pandemic has kept him mostly at home for health reasons.“With the result of COVID-19 and a lot of other stressors … I haven’t been able to do the activities that I’m used to doing, conduct my business as I’ve been going about it, so that’s brought me to the point where I’m losing muscle function more so than I ever have,” he explained.Beshay is one of a few hundred Canadians with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Type 2, a rare genetic disease. Ford government expands coverage for ‘miracle drug’ Spinraza, but with age cap “What it boils down to is that there is a gene that I have that’s nonfunctional,” he explained, adding: “It sort of helps motor neurons in our body to survive.