Patented Medicine Prices Review Board

• Most new medicines come to market with high treatment costs, and specialty medicines such as biologic, orphan, and cancer treatments continue to make up a growing share of the new drug landscape.
• The Meds Entry Watch report focuses on medicines approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and/or Health Canada.
• This edition examines trends in the market for new medicines approved since 2016, highlighting the 50 medicines that received first-time market approval in 2020 and providing a preliminary analysis of the 55 medicines approved in 2021.
• Of those, 76% had high treatment costs (>$10,000 annually or >$5,000 per 28-day treatment cycle), 58% received an orphan designation, and 36% were oncology medicines.

• A federal agency, the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB), is supposed to control drug prices for Canadians.
• Innovative Medicines Canada (IMC), an advocacy group for the brand name pharmaceutical industry, lobbied extensively to quash these reforms.
• The result of these upheavals is that Canadians do not currently have a fully functional body protecting their best interests around drug prices.

Pharma industry in Canada

• Reports in news media and scientific publications, including one by one of us, have expressed concerns about the data used and the degree of influence that IMC had over the published Statistics Canada report.
• Other sources such as the PMPRB annual report, which includes pharmaceutical market statistics from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), cite lower numbers for the economic impact of the industry.

High drug prices in Canada

• Some authors suggest our small market and fragmented administration of health care by 13 different provinces and territories contribute to high drug prices.
• However, when comparing the ratio of Canadian drug prices with those of smaller countries like Australia (price ratio 0.71 compared to Canada), and the Netherlands (price ratio 0.77 compared to Canada), it is clear that small market size does not automatically mean high drug prices.
• It is clear that Canada has very high drug prices relative to its peers — but what about the other side of the equation?

Pharmaceutical investment and the Canadian economy

• Pharmaceutical trade balance is one indicator of the economic impact of the industry.
• Contrast this with the negative pharmaceutical trade balance in Canada, where the deficit was estimated at US$351.14 per person and increasing.
• Still, the 49,403 direct jobs provided to Canadians by the pharmaceutical sector translates into one job for 774 people which is comparable with other countries.

Investment in pharma R&D in Canada

• Not comparable however is the level of R&D investment.
• The ratio of R&D to sales is another way to gauge the economic impact of the industry.
• The PMPRB noted that Canada had the worst ratio among comparator countries at 3.9 per cent.
• But even using figures from the Statistics Canada publication endorsed by IMC, its membership was spending 5.6 per cent to 7.9 per cent of revenue on R&D, putting Canada perhaps marginally ahead of Italy but well behind the other comparator countries.

Realistic goals for Canadian drug prices and pharma industry

• Enhancing other economic avenues takes time and consistent government policies.
• However, Canada could try to achieve a balance of investment and prices closer to norms for similar countries.
• Using the median of the countries PMPRB uses as comparators, this would mean improving the ratio of R&D to sales by five-fold.

• The Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB), through the National Prescription Drug Utilization Information System (NPDUIS) research initiative, today published the latest edition of the Market Intelligence Report: Antidiabetic Drugs, 2012-2021, which examines the market for drugs used in the treatment of diabetes.
• This fourth report in the Market Intelligence series analyzes the market for drugs used in the treatment of diabetes.
• Antidiabetic drug growth outpaced the overall drug market, effectively doubling the market share for these drugs from 4.2% to 7.9% (2012 to 2021).
• These drugs were responsible for almost all of Canada's increase in cost per capita of antidiabetic drugs since 2012.

• OTTAWA, ON, Dec. 5, 2022 /CNW/ - Innovative Medicines Canada (IMC) has submitted formal feedback to the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board's (PMPRB) revised Draft Guidelines public consultation, calling for a suspension of the planned implementation to ensure meaningful stakeholder consultation and a thorough impact analysis.
• At present, only 18 per cent of new medicines launched globally are available to Canadians via public drug plans.
• Innovative Medicines Canada is the national association representing the voice of Canada's innovative pharmaceutical industry.
• Guided by the Code of Ethical Practices, all members work with governments, private payers, healthcare professionals, and stakeholders in a highly ethical manner.