The pCODR Expert Review Committee (pERC)

The pan-Canadian Oncology Drug Review Expert Review Committee (pERC) is an appointed, pan-Canadian advisory body to Canada’s Drug Agency composed of individuals with expertise in cancer drug therapy, drug evaluation and drug utilization, and patient members (for a lay perspective).

As part of the reimbursement review process, pERC makes reimbursement recommendations for oncology pharmaceuticals to the participating federal, provincial, and territorial publicly funded drug programs. It also makes recommendations related to the identification, evaluation, and promotion of optimal drug prescribing and use in Canada.

pERC's approach is evidence based, and the advice reflects medical and scientific knowledge, current clinical practice, economics, ethical considerations, and patient and public impact.

pERC is appointed by, and reports to, the President and CEO of Canada’s Drug Agency . Members must abide by the Conflict of Interest Policy and guidelines for Expert Committee and Panel Members and our Code of Conduct. An honorarium is paid to pERC members for their preparation and meeting time.

• pERC Terms of Reference
• Expert Committee Meeting Schedule
• Conflict of Interest Guidelines
• Code of Conduct

pERC's Deliberative Framework

To ensure the consistency and transparency of its cancer drug review process, pERC follows a well-defined deliberative framework. This framework describes all the elements that should be considered by pERC during its review.

Each element is important to the review, and it is the sum consideration of all elements that pERC uses to formulate a funding recommendation.

• Deliberative Framework Last updated: March 2011

Membership

All pERC members have experience with and a good understanding of issues related to cancer diagnosis, treatment, and care. Each member must also comply with our conflict of interest, confidentiality requirements, and code of conduct. Professional members of pERC are drawn from the fields of medicine, pharmacy, pharmacology, or health economics. Patient members are selected because of their personal knowledge of, experience with, and understanding of issues related to cancer and its management, among other qualifications. pERC has up to 17 voting members including the three patient members.

Chair

Dr. Catherine Moltzan, Hematologist

Dr. Moltzan is a clinical hematologist and hematological pathologist who is an Associate Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Hematology/Oncology, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba and CancerCare Manitoba. She is a medical graduate of the University of Alberta, and she completed her residency training at the University of Manitoba and University of Ottawa. She also holds a certificate in medical education from the University of Dundee and a master’s degree in patient safety leadership from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Dr. Moltzan has clinical and academic interests in quality of care and patient safety of cancer patients, transfusion medicine, and medical education. Her medical practice includes patients with lymphoproliferative disease, myeloproliferative neoplasms, chronic myeloid leukemia, and nonmalignant hematology. She has been a member of pERC since 2015, and she has served as Vice-Chair of pERC from 2015 to 2018.

Dr. Moltzan has served on a number of national and international committees throughout her career. Currently, she is also the Chair of the Hematology Subspecialty Committee at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

Conflict of Interest Disclosure 

Members

Dr. Matthew Cheung, Oncologist

Dr. Matthew Cheung obtained his Medical Degree in 1999 at the University of Toronto. He completed residency programs in internal medicine and hematology from 1999 to 2004 at the University of Toronto. Thereafter, he completed a clinical and Research Fellowship in Lymphoma, and a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) HIV/AIDS postdoctoral research fellowship. In 2006, he obtained a master’s degree in clinical epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. He currently holds peer-reviewed grant support from CIHR, the National Cancer Institute of Canada, and the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (CANFAR)

Dr. Cheung joined the medical staff at the Odette Cancer Centre/Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre as a clinician investigator and clinical hematologist in 2007. He is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. He serves on the Hematology Disease Site Executive Committee for the National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group and is a member of the Hematology Cancer Disease Site Group of the Cancer Care Ontario Program in Evidence-based Care. His research interests include AIDS-related malignancies, clinical trial development in lymphoma, and pharmacoeconomic evaluation in the hematologic malignancies.

Conflict of Interest Disclosure

Dr. Michael Crump, Oncologist

Conflict of Interest Disclosure

Adam Raymakers, Senior Health Economist

Dr. Adam Raymakers is a Senior Health Economist in department of Cancer Control Research at BC Cancer (Vancouver, British Columbia). He is also a post-doctoral fellow in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University. He holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in economics from Dalhousie University (Halifax, Nova Scotia), a MSc in Health Economics, Policy, and Law from Erasmus University (Rotterdam, the Netherlands), and a PhD in health economics and pharmacoepidemiology from the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, British Columbia). He has also completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the economic evaluation of medical devices with the J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics at the National University of Ireland Galway (Galway, Ireland). Adam also serves as an editor at the journals: Health Policy and Technology, BMC Health Services Research, and Frontiers in Health Services.

Adam’s research interests lay in the areas of economic evaluation of new therapies. He is currently funded by a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR) Research Trainee Award to explore issues around the cost effectiveness of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies and gene therapies and adoptive cell therapies more broadly. Additional research interests include drug policy and approval/reimbursement processes, evidence assessment and uncertainty, the role of equity in the delivery of health care, and the intersection of health services research and climate change.

Conflict of Interest Disclosure

Dr. Anca Prica, Hematologist

Dr. Anca Prica is a staff hematologist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and assistant professor in the division of hematology at University of Toronto, appointed in 2014. She is currently the site lead of the lymphoma and myeloma program at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. She did her initial medical training in Toronto, and her clinical training in internal medicine and hematology in the University of Toronto Program. She then did a 2-year fellowship in malignant hematology at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and a master’s in health research methodology at McMaster University, with research interests in quality of life and economic evaluations. Anca’s clinical work focuses in both lymphoproliferative and plasma cell disorders, as well as autologous stem cell transplantation and CAR T-cell therapy. Her research interests focus on health services research, particularly economic evaluations, and decision analyses for oncologic questions, examining resource use and cost of care, as well as toxicity of chemotherapies, and their effects on quality of life and caregiver burden.

Conflict of Interest Disclosure

Amy Peasgood, Patient

Amy Peasgood earned her LL.B. from Dalhousie University in 2005 and has been diagnosed with 4 types of cancer since 2006, including Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC) in 2014. During this time, Ms. Peasgood was diagnosed with a genetic cancer predisposition called Li-Fraumeni Syndrome (LFS), which inspired her to write a children’s book about LFS with her daughter. Over the years, Amy has volunteered to promote family engagement in research; shed light on the mental health challenges that often accompany a cancer diagnosis; and raised awareness of MBC and LFS. She has also shared her story through public speaking engagements, in personal essays, and online communications, in the hopes of building the patient voice and supporting those who face similar challenges. Amy lives in Kelowna, British Columbia with her husband and 2 daughters.

Conflict of Interest Disclosure

Dr. Patricia Tang, Oncologist

Dr. Patricia Tang is a medical oncologist at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre and a Clinical Associate Professor at the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. She specializes in the treatment of breast and gastrointestinal malignancies.

Patricia obtained her Bachelor of Medical Science Degree (Distinction) and Medical Doctorate (Distinction with Honours in Research) from the University of Alberta where she also completed her internal medicine training. After medical oncology residency at the University of Calgary, she completed an Investigational New Drug Fellowship at Princess Margaret Hospital, University of Toronto. As the Provincial Gastrointestinal Cancer Tumour Group Leader for Alberta, she is involved in development of clinical practice guidelines and pathways. Patricia is the centre representative to the Canadian Cancer Clinical Trials Group for Calgary, a member of the OICR Clinical Trials Subcommittee, and was awarded the Ralph Meyer Phase III Program Young Investigator Award in 2016. She has reviewed grants for Breast Cancer Now (UK), the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency, the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, and Pancreatic Cancer Canada. Dr. Tang’s research interests include clinical trials and health services research. She is a co-investigator on Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Terry Fox Research Initiative funded grants. A member of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Nucleus Committee for Medical Oncology, Patricia received the 2016 Luminary Award for Teaching in the Department of Oncology.

Conflict of Interest Disclosure

Dr. Phillip Blanchette MSc, MD, FRCPC

Dr. Blanchette received his MD from the University of Ottawa in 2009 and postgraduate training in Internal Medicine (2009–2012) and Medical Oncology (2012–2014) at the University of Toronto. Thereafter, Dr. Blanchette completed a specialized breast cancer fellowship at the Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre (2014–2016). He also completed a master’s degree in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation in 2016.

Dr. Blanchette’s clinical and research expertise is in breast and lung cancer. He has been a medical oncologist at the London Regional Cancer Program of the London Health Sciences Centre since 2016 and is currently an Associate Professor of Oncology at the University of Western Ontario. His research specializes in health services with a focus on cancer clinical outcomes, health equity, and drug safety. Dr. Blanchette is an adjunct scientist at the Institute of Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and an active member of Ontario Health’s breast cancer clinical practice guideline and drug advisory committees.  

Conflict of Interest Disclosure

Yoo-Joung Ko, MD, MMSc, SM, FRCP(C)

Staff Medical Oncologist, St. Michael’s Hospital; Unity Health 
Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto

Dr. Yoo-Joung Ko graduated from, and completed his internal medicine training at, the University of Toronto before moving to Boston, where he completed his fellowship training in hematology and oncology at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. During the fellowship, Dr. Ko completed a Master of Medical Sciences at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Following the fellowship, he stayed on as faculty and was funded by a career award from the National Cancer Institute. During this time, he also completed a Master of Science in Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. Since returning to Canada, he has focused his efforts on gastrointestinal malignancies and medical education. He is the prior chair of the gastrointestinal cancer group at the Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre. He is interested in clinical trials and has been the principal investigator of several of multicentre investigator-initiated studies. His interest in research ethics led him to serve as a vice-chair and chair of the Ontario Cancer Research Ethics Board . He has also completed the Master Teacher Program and has won several teaching awards both at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. In addition, he is the Oncology section editor at DynaMed, an online medical resource. He is currently the program medical director of Unity Health’s Oncology and Endoscopy program. 

Conflict of Interest Disclosure

Kelvin Chan, MD, MSc, PhD

Dr. Kelvin Chan is a medical oncologist at Sunnybrook Hospital’s Odette Cancer Centre, a professor at the University of Toronto, and an associate scientist at the Sunnybrook Research Institute. He specializes in gastrointestinal oncology and head and neck oncology.

As a clinical epidemiologist and biostatistician, Dr. Chan’s research interests include health services research, health technology assessment, meta-analysis including network meta-analysis, cost-effectiveness analyses, and statistical methods research in health economics. He is codirector of the Canadian Centre for Applied Research in Cancer Control (ARCC).

Professionally, Dr. Chan has an interest in issues related to cancer drug reimbursement. He is a member of multiple provincial and national committees that focus on cancer drug assessments and recommendations, including the Committee to Evaluate Drug (CED) and the Ontario Steering Committee of Cancer Drugs (OSCCD). He is also the clinical lead for the Provincial Drug Reimbursement Programs (PDRP) at Ontario Health.

Conflict of Interest Disclosure

Terry Hawrysh, MSc, PEng

Terry Hawrysh is a blood cancer survivor and proponent for a health care system that consistently delivers superior patient outcomes and experiences. As a stage IV cancer survivor, he has experienced the benefits and challenges that patients and their families face while navigating the diagnosis, treatment, and post-treatment phases of their care. Reflecting on his own cancer journey has led to an interest in the application of patient engagement in cancer research and the impactful contributions it can achieve. 

He currently serves as vice-chair of the Ontario Institute of Cancer Research Patient Family Advisory Committee, where he applies his lived experience as a cancer survivor to a variety of innovative translational research programs. He also contributes his time as a patient partner and patient advisor to the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Clinical Trials Ontario, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada, the University of Toronto’s Centre for Sustainable Health Systems, and Ontario Health.

Terry is a professional engineer and holds degrees in engineering from the University of Toronto and Queen’s University. He has held senior corporate roles in the utility infrastructure and green energy sectors and has also cofounded and operated several innovative start-ups. 

Conflict of Interest Disclosure

Jennifer Fishman, PhD

Jennifer Fishman is an associate professor in the Biomedical Ethics Unit and the Department of the Social Studies of Medicine, and an associate member of the Sociology Department and the Institute for Health and Social Policy at McGill University . She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Fishman is a sociologist of science, technology, and medicine. She uses empirical qualitative methods to describe and analyze the emergence of new medical knowledge and technologies, from the early stages of development to their integration into clinical practice and dissemination to clinicians and patients. Often referred to as “empirical ethics,” she analyzes the oft unexamined and presumptive ethics and values within new scientific enterprises and how these impact research trajectories, technological diffusion and commercialization, and ultimately patients and consumers. She has studied new pharmaceutical drug development and advertising, anti-aging science and medicine, direct-to-consumer genetic risk susceptibility testing, end-of-life medical decisions, prenatal genetic carrier testing panels, and the promise of personalized genomic medicine. Her new project will examine the early translation of epigenetic research and knowledge into public health and media messages to prospective parents. 

Conflict of Interest Disclosure

Dr. Aly-Khan A. Lalani, B.Sc. (Hons), MD, FRCPC

Dr. Aly-Khan A. Lalani is an associate professor at McMaster University and a medical oncologist at the Juravinski Cancer Centre (JCC). He is the chair for the Genitourinary (GU) Cancers Disease Site team at the JCC. He is also a scientist with the Escarpment Cancer Research Institute, and an associate member of the Centre for Discovery in Cancer Research at McMaster University.

His academic interests include clinical trial design and translational work for GU malignancies. During fellowship training at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, he completed the Clinical Effectiveness program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He has served on the Cancer Care Ontario / Ministry of Health (CCO-MOH) GU Drug Advisory Committee since 2018. Dr. Lalani was awarded the Elizabeth Eisenhauer Early Drug Development Young Investigator Award from the Canadian Cancer Trials Group (CCTG) in 2022; and the Rising Star Award from the Canadian Association of Medical Oncologists (CAMO) in 2023. In his spare time, he is also cohost of the podcast The View on GU.

Annette Cyr - C.Dir., C.C.P, SHRP

Annette is a founder and former Chair of the Board for Melanoma Canada, as well as a survivor of melanoma. She has actively volunteered, advocated, and served with the organization since its inception in 2009.

Annette holds an executive MBA, a degree in Business Administration, a BA in business from the University of Saskatchewan and the professional designations of Chartered Director from McMaster University and the Senior Human Resources Professional (SHRP). Since 2001, she has owned and operated her business management consulting company, Cyr & Associates Inc. She is a former Board Chair for Burlington Hydro, has served as a Director for the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), and as a former board director for Joe Brant Hospital . In 2012, she was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal for service to the community. She is involved in many national and international committees to improve access to clinical trials and treatment for melanoma and skin cancer patients.

Dr. Jason Hart MD, FRCPC., Hematologist and Medical Oncologist

Dr. Jason Hart is a hematologist and medical oncologist at BC Cancer – Victoria. And he is a clinical associate professor with the Department of Medicine at both the University of British Columbia and the University of Victoria. He attended medical school at the University of Alberta, where he also completed training in hematology and medical oncology.

Dr. Hart’s area of clinical practice is hematologic malignancies and sarcoma. He has held medical leadership roles as Department Head of Medical Oncology and was subsequently appointed Executive Medical Director for BC Cancer - Victoria between 2018 and 2023. He is passionate about research, and one of his many leadership responsibilities was to provide medical leadership and oversight for restructuring clinical trials and clinical research in Victoria. He has been a clinical guidance panel member with the pan-Canadian Oncology Drug Review (pCODR) since 2014 and joined pERC (the pCODR Expert Review Panel) in 2024.

Dr. Pierre Villeneuve

Dr. Villeneuve obtained his combined MD and PhD degrees from McGill University and completed his residencies in internal medicine and hematology at the University of Toronto. He then pursued a two-year clinical and research fellowship in adoptive therapy and autologous stem cell transplant at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. He has completed an M.Sc. in health economics, policy and management at the London School of Economics.

Dr. Villeneuve is an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa where he is member of the Ottawa Blood Disease Centre and of the Ottawa Health Research Institute. His clinical focus is with myeloproliferative neoplasm and his research interest lies in the economic value of interventions in hematological malignancies, addressed through 3 key axes of research that enable an active role in the decision of health care resource allocation. For one, he is interested in performing pharmacoeconomic evaluations of therapies in malignant hematology. Second, he has a research focus in economic evaluations alongside clinical trials in malignant hematology. Third, he is interested in analyzing real-world data to provide useful information for provincial funding agencies on the economic value of interventions in hematology.

Dr. Villeneuve is a colead of hematology for economic analysis and was an executive member of the hematology group for the Canadian Clinical Trial Group . At the provincial level, he is a professional committee member of the Ontario Steering Committee for Cancer Drug Programs and a member of the Clinical Expert Review Committee of Cancer Care Ontario (Ontario Health).

Danica Wasney, BSc (Pharm), ACPR, BCOP

Danica Wasney has worked as a clinical pharmacist at CancerCare Manitoba (CCMB) since 2002. She has also worked on multidisciplinary care teams providing care to patients and caregivers with breast cancer, colorectal cancer, gynecologic cancers, lung cancer, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, and central nervous system tumours. She has been involved in the implementation of emerging systemic therapies in oncology-hematology in Manitoba as a member of the Provincial Oncology Drug Program (PODP) since 2008. She maintains expertise in the safe preparation and administration of anticancer medications, including initiatives to reduce drug waste, standardize administration protocols, and ensure the high quality of sterile compounding of anticancer medications. She also maintains the provincial oncology drug formulary and drug funding algorithms at CCMB.

Danica graduated from the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Manitoba and completed an Accredited Hospital Pharmacy Residency at The Ottawa Hospital. She has been a board-certified oncology pharmacist with the Board of Pharmacy Specialties (US) since 2005 and is also a clinical lecturer at the College of Pharmacy, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba.

On a national level, she is a coauthor of the Canadian Association of Pharmacy in Oncology’s Competencies for Oncology Pharmacists in Canada (2024). She has presented at numerous provincial and national oncology pharmacy conferences. She was a member of the pan-Canadian Oncology Drug Review Expert Review Committee (pERC) from 2011 to 2017 and was the Manitoba representative for the Provincial Advisory Group from 2020 to 2024. She is honoured to rejoin pERC as of October 2024.