Provinces Continue to Close Gap Between Canadian and International Generic Drug Prices

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Feb. 9, 2016) - Patented Medicine Prices Review Board

The Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB), through the National Prescription Drug Utilization Information System (NPDUIS) research initiative, today published the most recent edition in a series of reports on generic drug pricing. Entitled Generics360, this comprehensive report compares generic drug prices in Canada with those of up to eleven other industrialized countries.

Provincial generic pricing policies, including those initiated by the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance, achieved significant price reductions in Canada. While these declines exceeded the generic price reductions in foreign markets in recent years, prices of generic drugs remain appreciably higher in Canada than internationally.

Generics360 accounts for 81.9 percent of Canadian generic drug manufacturer sales and highlights major trends in generic drug pricing from a variety of perspectives, including reference brand-name prices, international generic-drug prices, and market size.

Generics360: Generic Drugs in Canada, 2014 is available on the PMPRB website in PDF and accessible HTML formats.

Quick Facts

• Average generic drug prices in Canada declined from 63% to 36% of their brand-name counterparts between 2010 and 2014.
  
  
• The gap between generic drug prices in Canadian and foreign markets gradually decreased from 40% in 2010 to 19% in 2014. Most of this reduction was realized by the end of 2013.
  
  
• While the weakening Canadian dollar also contributed to reducing the gap between international generic-drug prices and those in Canada, the magnitude of this change was offset by corresponding price reductions in foreign markets.
  
  
• Eleven countries were included in the international price comparisons in this study: the seven countries the PMPRB considers when reviewing the prices of patented drug products (France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and four other countries the PMPRB has considered in previous reports (the Netherlands, Spain, Australia, and New Zealand).
  
  
• Generics360 examines the prices of 554 leading generic drugs, representing a significant component of the generic drug market in Canada with over $1B in Canadian sales in 2014.
  
  

Related Products

- Generics360: Generic Drugs in Canada, 2014 (Patented Medicine Prices Review Board)

Additional Links

- Related NPDUIS Analytical Studies (Patented Medicine Prices Review Board)

Patented Medicine Prices Review Board

The Patented Medicine Prices Review Board is a respected public agency that makes a unique and valued contribution to sustainable spending on pharmaceuticals in Canada by:

• providing stakeholders with price, cost, and utilization information to help them make timely and knowledgeable drug pricing, purchasing, and reimbursement decisions; and
  
  
• acting as an effective check on the patent rights of pharmaceutical manufacturers through the responsible and efficient use of its consumer protection powers.
  
  

About the NPDUIS initiative

The National Prescription Drug Utilization Information System (NPDUIS) is a research initiative established by federal, provincial, and territorial Ministers of Health in September 2001. It is a partnership between the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board and the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).

The NPDUIS initiative provides policy makers and public drug plan managers with critical analyses of price, utilization and cost trends so that Canada's health care system has more comprehensive and accurate information on how prescription drugs are being used and on sources of cost pressures.

The main data source for this report is IMS AG's MIDAS™ database.