Increase brain cancer funding
Petitioners ask the Government of Canada to increase funding for brain cancer research, ensure nationwide access to related drugs and therapies, and reduce regulatory red tape to speed approvals. The government responds that Health Canada uses accelerated review pathways, international collaboration and regulatory modernization, and that CIHR funds brain‑cancer research.
Why we would sign this petition
- Increases research funding would support more studies and clinical trials for brain cancers, potentially speeding development of effective treatments.
- A federal push for nationwide access could reduce regional disparities so approved drugs and devices reach patients across provinces and territories.
- Reducing regulatory red tape and accelerating approvals could bring promising therapies to patients sooner, shortening time between approval elsewhere and Canadian availability.
Why we wouldn’t sign this petition
- Raising federal research and access funding would increase public spending and may compete with other health priorities.
- Faster approvals risk reducing scrutiny; regulatory speed‑ups may compromise safety oversight or depend on companies to submit applications.
- Health services and drug reimbursement are largely provincial; federal measures may be limited without provincial collaboration and implementation.
The summary and both sets of reasons are AI-generated from the petition and given equal weight. Claims are the petitioners’ own; consult the official record for the full text.
Official petition
Petition to the Government of Canada Whereas: An estimated twenty-seven Canadians are diagnosed with a brain tumour each day; Less than three in ten Canadians diagnosed with a primary malignant brain tumour survive five years after their diagnosis; Brain cancer research is critically underfunded in Canada; Canada is years behind the United States in approving new drugs and treatments, which could have an impact on thousands of brain cancer patients; Even when new brain cancer therapies are approved, they are not always made equally accessible to patients across the country; and There continues to be a shortage of brain cancer drugs in Canada, and some medications even become discontinued. We, the undersigned citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to: 1. Increase funding for brain cancer research; 2. Work with the provinces and territories to ensure that drugs, medical devices, and new therapies are accessible to brain cancer patients nation-wide; and 3. Remove unnecessary red tape so brain cancer drugs can be approved more quickly.
Government response
Response by the Minister of Health Signed by Maggie Chi Our government understands the importance of making sure patients have access to therapies that may help treat their conditions, such as brain cancers. Drugs are being developed that may alleviate or prevent some of the symptoms of such diseases, and, over time, these drugs may prove to be of significant clinical benefit with respect to improving survival of those suffering from these diseases. Under the Food and Drugs Act and its Regulations, all products sold or marketed in Canada that make a therapeutic claim need to be approved by Health Canada through a drug submission filed by a sponsor (e.g., a pharmaceutical company). Every drug submission is reviewed by Health Canada scientists to assess the product’s safety, efficacy and quality to determine whether the risks associated with the product are acceptable in light of its potential benefits. If they are, then the drug will be approved for sale in Canada. Health Canada’s review timelines are comparable with other international jurisdictions, including the United States’ Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency. The Guidance Document: The Management of Drug Submissions and Applications provides details on the process and timelines for the drug review process. It should be noted that, in the absence of a submission from a sponsor (i.e., pharmaceutical company), Health Canada cannot authorise a therapeutic product, regardless of whether the product is authorized elsewhere. The decision to submit a drug application for review is made by the sponsor. Health Canada has policies in place to help facilitate the authorization of promising new drugs in Canada. The Department’s Notice of Compliance with Conditions (NOC/c) policy facilitates access to new drugs to patients suffering from serious, life-threatening or severely debilitating diseases or conditions for which no drug is presently marketed in Canada or for which a significant increase in efficacy or a significant decrease in risk is demonstrated in relation to an existing drug marketed in Canada. A Notice of Compliance (i.e. authorization) issued under the NOC/c policy may be granted for a drug product with promising clinical benefit, provided that it possesses an acceptable safety profile based on a benefit/risk assessment and is found to be of high quality. Additionally, the Priority Review policy and guidance document enables an accelerated review target date of 180 days, instead of the standard 300 days, for drugs intended for the treatment, prevention or diagnosis of serious, life-threatening or severely debilitating illnesses or conditions. Health Canada has a long history of cooperation with international counterparts and organizations, ranging from informal information exchanges to multilateral harmonization initiatives. Specific to cancer drugs, Project Orbis is an initiative of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Oncology Center of Excellence that aims to give patients faster access to promising treatments across the globe. Health Canada has been a partner in Project Orbis since its inception in May 2019, which allows partners to work concurrently, share information, and/or communicate with each other as needed, while preserving regulatory authority for each jurisdiction. The collaborative effort of this project helps Health Canada bring new cancer treatments to Canadians more quickly by encouraging earlier filing of submissions with Health Canada and overall shorter review times compared to non-Orbis submissions. Since the launch of Project Orbis in 2019 and up to February 23, 2026, Health Canada has approved 100 drug submissions through this pathway and has another 19 currently under review. According to an independent analysis conducted by the Centre for Innovation in Regulatory Science, new active substance drug submissions for new oncology products through Project Orbis are filed to Health Canada by the pharmaceutical company 165 days earlier (median) than non-Orbis applications. In addition, they found that the review time is 77 days shorter (median). Taking these two things together, the approval of these drugs occurred 242 days earlier than for standard drug submissions. Our government also understands the importance of modernizing our regulatory frameworks to enable the authorization of promising new therapies and reduce regulatory barriers to innovation that could improve the health of patients in Canada. Health Canada is advancing a regulatory modernization plan that aims to provide greater regulatory flexibility in support of innovative research and health product development. This plan will help us to regulate the risks, benefits and uncertainties of more diverse and complex products, such as potential brain cancer drugs. In addition, on September 8, 2025, Health Canada published a report that includes actions the Department is taking towards modernizing regulatory processes to reduce red tape in the health products sector. These actions support the Government’s commitment to eliminating outdated or overly complicated rules and processes and streamlining the delivery of regulatory decisions. Specific to drugs, the Department has committed to increasing access through enhanced international collaboration, alignment, and reliance, simplifying the Food and Drug Regulations, addressing stakeholder-identified burdens to support faster approvals, and modernizing the framework for clinical trials. Recently, Health Canada launched a consultation, ending March 14, 2026, on the proposed Order providing for reliance on decisions of, or documents produced by, foreign regulatory authorities in respect of certain drugs. The Department will consult on initiatives and report on progress as it works towards implementing these commitments. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Canada's federal funding agency for health research, has invested more than $1.1 billion in cancer research since 2020-21. This includes an investment of over $84 million in cancers impacting the brain and nervous system. Some current CIHR-supported research projects include the work of: • Dr. Daniel Schramek at Toronto’s Sinai Health System targeting low-grade gliomas, which are found in younger patients ($1.05 million over 5 years); • Dr. Daniela Quail at Montreal’s McGill University is researching immune-targeted therapies in glioblastoma treatment ($1.1 million over 5 years); • Dr. Sheila Singh, a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Human Cancer Stem Cell Biology at McMaster University, advancing a research program on brain tumours ($1.4 million over 7 years). Dr. Singh has already discovered a brain tumour-initiating cell that may drive the formation of brain tumours; she and her team are now working on research to target the BTIC with tailored drug and molecular therapies.