'Lives are on the line:' Cystic fibrosis patients file class action lawsuit for $250K-a-year drug

For a B.C. mother who suffers from cystic fibrosis, taking four pink pills a day made it possible to get out of bed, feed her kids and take them to school.

“For the first time in a long time, I got to be a mother to them,” said Melissa Verleg, 34, of Vernon, B.C., whose children are seven and nine years old.

“Life was fantastic.”

The pill was Orkambi, a medication designed to treat cystic fibrosis in patients with a specific mutation.

Patients like Verleg call it life-changing, but B.C. and other provinces don’t cover its hefty cost: about $250,000 per