Dateline: 09/28/01
Managing the high cost of prescription drugs to Canada's health care system was a major agenda item at the Canadian health ministers meeting in St. John's, Newfoundland, Sept. 25-26, 2001. The meeting was a follow-up on the health care agreement reached by the Prime Minister and federal premiers in September 2000.
The September 2000 action plan directed the federal and provincial goverment health ministers to come up with strategies "to ensure Canadians continue to have access to appropriate and cost-effective drugs."
The health ministers have agreed to:
- establish a common review process for coverage of new drugs in Canada. While decisions on which benefits and which drugs will be covered will still be left up to the individual provincial and territorial health plans, the ministers did agree to increase collaboration and to increase efforts to assess the cost-effectiveness of drugs in the review process.
- promote best practices in drug prescribing and use, so that the health system gets the best value possible for drugs paid through public funds
- establish a National Prescription Drug Utilization Information System to provide analysis of price, utilization and cost trends. The system will provide information to doctors and pharmacists, as well as to health plan administrators.
Participation by individual provinces and territories in these three initiatives was left optional, however.
