20 May 2019 - The notion that national pharmacare will be a panacea with an open-ended formulary (list of drugs) for all conditions is one of the bigger myths in the Canadian pharmacare debate.

In the interim report from the Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare, the council indicated strong support for the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH). This is the same agency that provided input for the Ontario Drug Benefit (ODB) program’s “no” decision in Kelly Grant’s article, Cracks In The System: Without A National Pharmacare Strategy, Who Is Left Behind? (May 14).

CADTH does a thorough review of evidence and considers clinical- and cost-effectiveness in its recommendations. Ottawa has indicated that under a proposed national pharmacare plan, the new system would continue to use the agency as part of a central authority reviewing drugs.

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