The price of patented medicines in Canada remains the highest of any comparator country, a new 2021 report by the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) confirms.
Only Americans and Swiss pay more than Canadians. The United States and Switzerland were removed from Canada’s comparison list following a recent reform of the PMPRB guidelines due to their exorbitant price levels.
The annual report from the agency responsible for “protecting Canadians” from overpriced patented drugs puts the number of drugs approved by US, European and Canadian regulators at 55 in 2021.
This is a record number of new drugs in five years, driven in part by the arrival of COVID-19. “Three-quarters” of these new drugs “are associated with high treatment costs,” says the PMPRB.
No conflict of interest test
Last week, the QMI Agency reported that the PMPRB’s new President and Vice President are both from the pharmaceutical industry.
The Privy Council Office, which is responsible for the appointment process on the recommendation of the Department of Health, said “candidates are subject to the provisions of the Conflict of Interest Act” but there was no preliminary assessment of conflicts of interest at the appointment.
The selected individuals are “informed” of their ethical “obligations,” reports the Office of the Commissioner for Conflicts of Interest and Ethics.
Furthermore, the presidency and vice-presidency are part-time positions and, as a spokesman for the Commissioner’s office indicated in an email, “external activities are not prohibited where a person is appointed part-time”.
President-elect Thomas Digby, an intellectual property lawyer for the industry who was appointed in late January, would always have clients, according to his biography on the federal agency’s official website.
Vice President of Quebec, Anie Perrault, worked for BIOQuébec, a trade association, for almost a decade before joining the PMPRB in August.
An “abnormal” situation
“It looks like it’s become the norm when it should be completely abnormal,” protests Marc-André Gagnon, an associate professor in Carleton University’s School of Public Policy.
“We have a bit of this culture in the Canadian pharmaceutical sector that conflicts of interest are not serious, everyone has them anyway,” he continued.
Mr. Gagnon believes these appointments spell the ultimate death of the more incisive reforms proposed by the PMPRB before COVID-19, but which were rejected in February 2022 in the Quebec Court of Appeals. Ottawa had not appealed the case.
“In light of the pandemic, it seems like the government of Canada has completely lagged behind the industry,” lamented Mr Gagnon.
The PMPRB proposed including market size in price benchmarking and restricting the practice of confidential rebates, a practice that has become common over the past decade and allows drug companies to keep the prices of their patented drugs secret in exchange for perceived cheap prices.
The industry strongly protested the implementation of these two parts of the reform, arguing that they would cause great damage to the life sciences sector in Canada.
“The message [de ces nominations par Ottawa] “It’s clear to everyone: Don’t try to go in this direction, we’ll stay in a system that’s favorable for the pharmaceutical industry,” complained the professor.
List of countries Canada compares to in adjusting new drug prices
• Germany
• Australia
• Belgium
• Spain
• France
• Italy
• Japan
• Norway
• The Netherlands
• Great Britain
• Sweden