As reported here, on May 16, 2017, Minister of Health Jane Philpott announced a consultation regarding proposed amendments to the Patented Medicines Regulations that would significantly affect the PMPRB's approach to drug price evaluation. Key proposed changes include: new factors in determining whether the price of a drug is excessive; expanding the list of comparator countries used to determine whether a price is excessive, but excluding the US and Switzerland; and requiring disclosure of all indirect price reductions, such as rebates and discounts. The consultation period is open until June 28, 2017, and the consultation document can be found here. Based on remarks provided by Minister Philpott to the Economic Club of Canada, the proposed regulatory amendments are expected to be published in the Fall of 2017 in Part I of the Canada Gazette for further feedback, with ultimate implementation in place no later than the end of 2018. The Vice-chairperson of the PMPRB issued a statement welcoming the actions to "strengthen and modernize [the PMPRB's] pricing framework to reduce the cost of prescription drugs."

New annual report on drug market entry. On April 11, 2017, the PMPRB published the first edition of Meds Entry Watch, a new annual publication that provides information on recently launched drugs in Canada and select international markets. The inaugural edition provides an analysis of Canadian and select international markets for 2009 to 2014, and a preliminary analysis of drugs launched in 2015.

Release of Annual Public Drug Plan Expenditure Report focusing on 2015-2016 fiscal years. On May 24, 2017, the PMPRB released the third edition of CompassRx, an annual report published under the National Prescription Drug Utilization Information System research initiative. CompassRx provides insight into drivers of drug expenditures in select Canadian public drug plans. The key findings reported include:

  • prescription drug expenditures of Canadian public drug plans increased by 9.9% ($1 billion) over the previous fiscal year, after years of low growth, and
  • drug costs, which accounted for almost 75% of the total expenditures, increased by 12%, driven primarily by the increased use of higher-cost patented drugs.

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