Each weekday, staff at the Exceptional Access Program (EAP) of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care receive between 250 and 300 requests for special prescription medications. These prescription drugs—typically expensive medications that are felt to be cost effective only when used to treat selected patients with specific problems—are not on the province’s regular …
Health Canada’s Health Products and Food Branch has a mandate of “minimizing health risk factors to Canadians while maximizing the safety provided by the regulatory system for health products”. The FDA’s mandate is “protecting the public health by assuring that… human and veterinary drugs, and vaccines and other biological products and medical devices intended for …
Want to buy a $100 coffee? Sounds absurd, doesn’t it? However, it’s equally absurd that this is how much more Albertans pay for some generic drugs than people in other countries. Take, for instance, 20mg of the cholesterol-lowering drug simvastatin. Albertans pay 90 cents for each tablet. In New Zealand, the government drug plan buys the …
Why do so many doctors still think they are invincible to the influence of the pharmaceutical industry? Attractive, well-dressed, charismatic drug reps with pearly smiles and shiny flow charts still wait in waiting rooms. Lectures and conferences still occur where lunch is paid for by the pharmaceutical industry. Research studies are still published where investigators receive grants …
Reforms to the way that Ontario community pharmacies are compensated for professional services, combined with an expanded scope of practice for pharmacists, are presenting major adjustment and implementation challenges for the profession. The changes are part of a culture change ushered in by a general shift in health care towards a push for greater inter-professional …
Canada is the only country in the world that provides universal public insurance for medical and hospital care but not for prescription drugs. Is this a desirable divide in health policy or a failing of our health care system? If the latter, what would our system ideally look like? In an effort to answer this …
What do you do as a healthcare provider when you know your patient can’t afford the medicines you are prescribing? In the era of evidence-based medicine, a greater focus has been placed on ensuring that patients are prescribed the most effective treatments, but rarely do we discuss what happens when a prescription leaves the physician’s …
In my last blog post, I argued that to overcome the insurance market failures in health care the government must either provide universal public health insurance or tightly regulate the private insurance market. Here I explain why a single-payer universal system won’t bankrupt the health care system. Indeed, it will do the opposite. Reducing administrative …
The Personal Health Navigator is available to all Canadian patients. Questions about your doctor, hospital or how to navigate the health care system can be sent to AskLisa@Sunnybrook.ca The Question: My mother is on six different medications from different pharmacies under the care of three specialists. How do I avoid a dangerous drug interaction? The Answer: This is …
In my last post, I explained how Canadian provinces are moving toward a model of “catastrophic” drug coverage instead of a pharmacare model more comparable to our “Medicare” system. Depending on the province, public coverage against catastrophic drug costs means that patients must pay between 3% and 10% of their household income before any public …
At this time of year, most Canadians are stocking up for the holidays. But a surprising number will also be stocking up on prescription drugs. This is not because they believe in doomsday predictions or because they are abusing the health care system. It is because, for a growing number of Canadians, prescription drug coverage only kicks …
Generic drugs may seem cheap, at least in comparison to brand name drugs. But Canadians pay more for generic drugs than people who live in many other countries. Last summer, the premiers of several provinces announced that they would attempt to take advantage of competition between generic manufacturers to drive down prices. The generic manufacturers’ …
The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is a proposed free trade agreement currently being negotiated between Canada and the European Union. The negotiations have mostly been taking place away from the public eye, but since the leak of CETA intellectual property (IP) chapter, it has slowly garnered attention due to the provisions relating to …
At the recent Council of the Federation meeting, Canadian provinces (except Quebec) announced that they will begin bulk-buying different generic drugs to reduce health care costs. They also flagged the need to both expand and accelerate group pricing on brand name pharmaceuticals. This is a long time coming and a step in the right direction. …
When I present my research, a question I often get asked is “When will Canada support the pharmaceutical industry?” What do they mean? With sales of $41.3 billion in 2009 and net revenues of $1.3 billion, the industry would in all accounts appear healthy. Furthermore, employment in the pharmaceutical industry has increased by 12% in …
The patent on OxyContin has run out, the expected profit gone. Is it a coincidence that Purdue has stopped making it and replaced it with the new and improved OxyNEO? If Purdue can get Canadian doctors to prescribe it, their profits will continue. In a recent edition of the Medical Post, an industry-funded newspaper which goes …
Concerns about quality and a fire at a Sandoz plant in Quebec exacerbated the current drug shortage in Canada. Many are asking why the shutdown of a single facility could threaten the nation’s supply of vital prescription medications. While federal and provincial governments have been eager to play the blame game, a shared sense of …
In an old episode of the Simpsons, Homer walks into a car lot and announces how much money he has to spend. After, a highly gratified dealer quickly inverts a 6 into a 9, a deal is made and off Homer goes to face further mishaps. This scene clearly illustrates how a consumer will always …
“What’s the harm in taking something small? It’s just a pen. It’s only lunch. It was just one weekend at the bed & breakfast with my partner. And I learned about a topic that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise. Plus I got some samples in return! It won’t affect my prescribing habits…” These are …
The Canada Health Act includes public coverage of services provided in hospitals and by doctors, but not prescription medications taken outside of hospital. Most provincial drug plans do provide some public coverage, but many Canadians lack drug coverage. In the last 25 years, prescription medications have become both more important and more expensive. Bringing prescription …