Alex Shved, left, and Agata Zieba pose with their two daughters in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout – Alex Shved (Mandatory Credit)
An Ontario man battling Stage 4 melanoma claims the province has effectively shut down access to public funding for out-of-country drug treatments following his urgent efforts to seek therapy in the United States.
Alex Shved, a 37-year-old dad of two young girls, took legal action against the province due to rejections from the Ontario Health Insurance Plan. His cancer has spread to his lungs and bones, prompting him to explore every option he could think of to be there for his daughters as long as possible.
While he won in court, he now feels “incredibly disappointed and disheartened” by the government’s decision to further restrict options for patients like him.
“The courts concluded that the government’s actions were unlawful, and the government’s response was to change the law to make those same actions now lawful,” Shved said in an interview.
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OHIP had denied his oncologist’s request for Shved to receive tumour-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy in Florida at an approximate cost of US$600,000, mainly because this therapy is under consideration for public funding in Ontario.
In his denial letter, the executive officer of Ontario public drug programs stated that routinely funding out-of-country drug therapies while they are under review would “undermine the incentive structure that encourages manufacturers to participate in Canada’s drug review processes.”
A Divisional Court ruling found that OHIP didn’t provide a solid basis for its reasoning and ordered OHIP to take another look at Shved’s case.
After this ruling, OHIP rejected Shved’s request again. Health Minister Sylvia Jones announced that regulations have been amended so that drugs will only be funded outside of Canada if they are already funded within the province but access is temporarily unavailable or delayed.
“We’re protecting Ontario patients and taxpayers from price-gouging and protecting their access to life-saving medications that would otherwise only be available in the United States or overseas,” she wrote in a statement.
The government is also looking into a “mutually satisfactory resolution” for Shved’s specific situation, according to Jones. However, Shved mentioned he’s still unsure what that would involve.
Since discovering a growing mole back in 2020, Shved has tried various treatments. His doctors believe he would be a good candidate for TIL therapy. This process involves removing tumors, extracting immune cells from them, multiplying these cells significantly through lab work combined with chemotherapy infusion, then injecting them back into him to fight off cancer.
A version of TIL therapy called lifileucel received approval last year by Health Canada and is currently undergoing reviews for potential funding by provincial drug plans-a process expected to take years.
This report by The Canadian Press was first Oct. 8, 2026.
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