Article by PDCI Market Access featured in TELUS Health Insights Magazine

Members of the PDCI Team recently published an article and case study highlighting the risks to Canadian drug launches posed by Health Canada’s proposed Patented Medicines Prices Review Board (PMPRB) price regulatory reforms. This article, which appears in the Spring 2019 edition of the TELUS Health Insights Magazine, presents a balance between the affordability concerns of drug plans and the risks to drug launches posed by excessive price controls.

As a leading pricing and market access consulting firm, PDCI has taken a proactive role in assessing and quantifying the risks posed by these reforms. We have shared insights with pharmaceutical companies, government policymakers, industry associations, and patient organizations.

Since the Fall of 2017, Health Canada and the PMPRB have embarked on the largest series of changes to Canada’s price regulatory framework for patented medicines since the PMPRB was first created in 1987. Even a cursory review of what is being proposed paints a picture of unprecedent risk to the future of drug launches in this country.

PDCI investigated a case example of an actual Drug for Rare Disease (DRD) that is currently on the market in Canada. Our study looked at the drug’s current list price (which is lower than PMPRB’s mandated ceiling) and how the price would fall under the proposed PMPRB reforms. The key finding of our analysis is startling – and not isolated to this case alone.

Had the PMPRB applied its proposed “cost-effectiveness threshold” as a pricing factor to the DRD example, its allowable price would have been reduced by more than 95%.  The concern for the future of drug access in Canada is grave: a 95% price reduction would likely make many drug launches unviable in this country and it calls into question whether the DRD studied would have launched at all.

If Health Canada and the PMPRB invoke such an aggressive method for lowering drug prices, Canada may well find itself with a reformed pricing framework but access to far fewer new innovative drugs.

You can read a copy of our analysis here on our website.