British Columbia Must Align MS Treatment Access With the Rest of Canada - 
Before More Patients Are Harmed

My name is Cassandra, and I live in British Columbia. I have Relapse-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis.

In October 2025, I learned I would lose access to the medication that has protected my vision and stabilized my disease for nearly a decade. A therapy publicly accessible to patients across Canada, yet still restricted here in British Columbia.

What began as my personal fear quickly became something much bigger.

I realized this is not only about me.

It is about every person living with MS in British Columbia who could one day be told they cannot access the treatment their neurologist recommends, or be forced off a therapy keeping them stable like myself, simply because of where they live.

Access to life-altering treatment should never depend on a postal code.

My Story

In 2017, I began losing vision in my right eye. Then my left eye started to follow.

After relentless optic neuritis attacks, MRIs confirmed the devastating reality..
Brain lesions, active optic nerve inflammation, and damage that would later become permanent scarring.

I was facing blindness.

My medical team fought to save what was left of my vision through repeated high-dose steroids and multiple oral medications that ultimately failed due to the side effects. 

Then, in early 2018, I accessed Ocrevus through a patient assistance program and later through private insurance.

My disease stabilized.

For the first time, I was no longer living in constant fear of the next attack, the next relapse, or the next irreversible loss.

Treatment gave me more than stability, it finally got me off the high-dose steroids that were keeping my vision stable.

It allowed me to continue seeing my children’s beautiful faces.
It allowed me to watch their milestones.
It allowed me to continue being present as their mother.

When I started Ocrevus, provinces across Canada were beginning to publicly fund it for relapsing MS. I believed British Columbia would eventually follow.

I never imagined that losing private insurance coverage could also mean losing access to the very treatment that saved and  preserved my sight and protected my future.

But now, that fear has become reality.

Because of British Columbia’s restrictions, I have lost coverage for the therapy that helped stabilize my disease for nearly 10 years.

In Multiple Sclerosis, stability is fragile.

Once you achieve stability, protecting it becomes everything.

The Bigger Problem in British Columbia

Every other Canadian province allows neurologists broader public access to Health Canada–approved therapies like Ocrevus and Kesimpta for relapsing MS.

British Columbia remains an outlier and restricts access.

Instead, patients who need an Anti-CD20 therapy are directed towards off-label Rituxan or its biosimilars, with policies treating these medications as interchangeable with newer MS-specific therapies.

They are not identical medications.

Ocrevus and Kesimpta were specifically developed and approved for Multiple Sclerosis. They were engineered for targeted B-cell depletion in MS and designed to reduce inflammatory disease activity while improving tolerability and long-term disease control. Kesimpta is fully humanized, further reducing the risk of inflammatory reactions.

Each one of these CD20 therapies is chosen individually, as they are not the same for every patient and science proves that. 

In a disease like MS, those differences matter.

Multiple Sclerosis is an inflammatory disease affecting the brain, spinal cord, central nervous system, and optic nerves.

Every relapse carries the risk of irreversible damage.

A relapse can mean:
permanent vision loss,
permanent mobility impairment,
permanent cognitive decline,
or irreversible disability progression.

That is why neurologists need every possible treatment option available.

MS Is Not One-Size-Fits-All …
Access Must Reflect That

Multiple Sclerosis is highly heterogeneous.

No two patients are the same.
No two brains are the same.
No two disease courses are the same.

Lesion location, inflammatory severity, progression rate, disability accumulation, treatment response, and tolerability vary dramatically from person to person.

That is exactly why access to ALL approved MS medications matters.

Even therapies within the same medication class are engineered differently and can produce meaningful differences in efficacy, tolerability, inflammatory response, safety profile, and long-term outcomes depending on the individual patient.

What protects one person’s vision may fail another person’s mobility.
What stabilizes one patient may not stabilize another.

One of the foundational principles of modern MS care across Canada is simple:

The right therapy.
For the right patient.
At the right time.

Restricting treatment options undermines that principle.

Neurologists should be able to use every approved tool available to protect their patients from irreversible damage and forced switches that introduce uncertainty in stability.

British Columbia is currently limiting those options.

Forced Switching and Denied Access Put Patients at Risk

One of the most important principles in MS care is keeping stable patients stable.

Yet in British Columbia:

• Patients can lose access if private insurance ends or changes
• Stable patients may face forced switching despite doing well
• Patients without insurance may be denied the therapy their neurologist believes is medically necessary
• Clinical judgment can be overridden by restrictive policy

Forced switching introduces risk and uncertainty into a disease where stability is critical.

Patients may face:
relapses,
immune reactions,
reduced tolerability,
new inflammatory activity,
or irreversible progression.

Denied access from the start can mean preventable disability that may never be reversed.

What may appear to be a cost-saving measure can instead create greater long-term burden:
more relapses,
more hospitalizations,
more steroid exposure,
greater disability,
greater healthcare utilization,
and devastating impacts on quality of life.

No patient with an incurable neurological disease should have to fight this hard to remain on a treatment that is working and no patient should have to take the lesser when other options are needed.

What We Are Asking

We are calling on the Government of British Columbia to:

• Publicly fund Ocrevus and Kesimpta for relapsing MS, aligning with the rest of Canada
• Ensure neurologists and patients have access to ALL approved MS medications needed for individualized treatment decisions
• Protect stable patients from forced switching and loss of access due to coverage changes
• Ensure access decisions are based on clinical need, not postal code
• Respect neurologist expertise and national MS standards of care

MS is incurable.
Neurological damage is irreversible.

Access decisions must reflect that reality.

What I’ve Been Doing to Fight Back

I have been doing everything in my power to bring attention to this inequality and fight for change:

• Speaking directly with government officials and health authorities
• Participating in media interviews to raise public awareness
• Leading social media advocacy campaigns highlighting the disparities faced by B.C. MS patients
• Initiating a formal investigation through the B.C. Ombudsperson
• Working alongside advocacy organizations such as MS Canada
• Being invited as a patient speaker for the MedAccessBC 2026 forum

I am fighting not only for myself, but for every British Columbian living with MS who deserves equitable access to modern MS care.

No person should risk losing their vision, mobility, independence, or future because policy has not kept pace with the rest of Canada.

Please stand with MS patients in British Columbia.

Please sign and share this petition.

Your voice could help create the change patients desperately need. 🧡