In Ontario there's a big problem. Nobody gets their drugs covered until they're 65 unless they're on some sort of assistance program, or in Ontario through the Trillium drug program, where then they are balancing out their drug costs with what their income is.
In Parkinson's, 15% of people, maybe even 20%, will have their onset before age 65. That's a large number of people who are now trying to take on drug costs. Some of them are still working, so they do get some of their drugs covered, but as you heard, that then forces them to keep working or they will lose their drug coverage, so that's not an ideal situation either.
There's definitely a big problem, with the per-drug cost for a lot of the Parkinson's medications at $200 to $300 per month. There can be up to four different medications, so the drug costs really add up very quickly.
There's definitely a big need there. With the new drugs that are coming out, there's one we have that most people are not covered for. The older medications are covered under certain circumstances, but again that varies quite a bit from province to province.