Posted by Michael Wonder on 11 Oct 2017
Study finds significant overlap in the drugs covered by Canadian public drug plans
11 October 2017 - The Patented Medicine Prices Review Board, through the National Prescription Drug Utilisation Information System research initiative, today published Alignment Among Public Formularies in Canada - Part 1: General Overview. This is the first report in a three-part series that compares drug coverage across provincial and federal public drug plans.
This report compares the lists of drugs covered by the public plans in 2015 and determines the extent to which they overlap. It also examines the degree of overlap among plans for specific market segments including generic drugs and branded products, high-cost drugs, and a specified list of drugs that experts believe are essential to the Canadian health care system.
The report found that public drug plan formularies listed a fairly high percentage of the drugs in question, especially for the list of essential medicines. In general, generic drugs had higher listing rates than branded products. The variation among public plans was greatest for high-cost drugs.
