Patented Medicine Prices Review Board releases flagship CompassRx report on public drug plan expenditures
March 31, 2015 — Ottawa, ON — Patented Medicine Prices Review Board
The Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB), through the National Prescription Drug Utilization Information System (NPDUIS) research initiative, is proud to present CompassRx, a flagship annual report and the first of its kind to identify the major drivers behind changes in prescription drug expenditures in public drug plans in Canada— an important element in allowing policy-makers and researchers to understand current trends and anticipate future cost pressures and expenditure levels.
This inaugural edition of CompassRx uses data from the NPDUIS public drug plan database to offer insight into the growth in prescription drug expenditures in select Canadian public drug plans over the 2012/13 fiscal year, providing policy-makers and researchers with a baseline for trends to be explored in future public drug plan expenditure reports. The report also takes a retrospective look at trends in public drug plan expenditures since 2008/09 and monitors major developments in Canada related to drug approval, review, pricing, and reimbursement.
The analysis in CompassRx employs a cost-driver model to identify and measure the impact of each of the four major drivers of change—demographic, volume, price, and drug-mix effects— for the two components of prescription drug expenditures: drug costs and dispensing costs. Important sub-effects, such as generic substitution, population growth, and prescription size are also examined.
“The key takeaway from the CompassRx report is that the provinces have been very effective lately at containing drug costs through increased generic substitution and generic price reductions, but that longer term solutions will be needed to address the fundamental cost drivers we are seeing in public drug plans.”
Douglas Clark
Executive Director, PMPRB
The Patented Medicine Prices Review Board protects and informs Canadians by ensuring the prices of patented medicines sold in Canada are not excessive, and by reporting on pharmaceutical trends.
The National Prescription Drug Utilization Information System is a research initiative jointly conducted by the PMPRB and the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). NPDUIS seeks to provide policy-makers and drug plan managers with information and insights on trends in prices, utilization, and costs.
The main data source for this report is the NPDUIS Database, developed by the CIHI.
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Sofie McCoy-Astell
Manager, Communications
Patented Medicine Prices Review Board
613-960-9728
Sofie.McCoy-Astell@pmprb-cepmb.gc.ca
