Canadian list prices for patented medicines remain among the highest in the world

Canada’s federal Minister of Health, Mark Holland, tabled the 2022 Annual Report from the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) in the House of Commons and with the clerks of the Senate, showing that patented medicines make up approximately 49 per cent of all medicine sales in Canada. Canadian list prices for patented medicines were the second highest among 31 Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development countries, second only to the United States.

Sales of patented medicines in Canada were $18.4-billion in 2022, up 5.7 per cent from the previous year. Research and development by rights holders in Canada decreased one per cent to just $914-million during the year.

High-cost medicines 

According to the PMPRB’s chair, Thomas Digby, high-cost medicines now account for 57.5 per cent of patented medicine sales. This is up from 21.8 per cent in 2013.

“In 2022, the 20 top-selling patented medicines in Canada, which accounted for 37.7 per cent of total patented medicine sales, had a median treatment cost of $21,345 compared to just $803 in 2013,” he writes.

The report continues, saying “since 1987, pharmaceutical costs in Canada have grown at an average rate of 6.6 per cent, outpacing most other health care costs and growing at approximately three times the rate of inflation over the same period.” 

Generic drug sales 

Biologic medicines are seen as a means of offsetting mounting pressures from higher-cost medicines as newer medicines and higher cost medicines continue to drive sales revenues. Key pharmaceutical trends, both in patented medicines and in generic drug sales are also examined. (While sales of patented medicines increased 5.7 per cent during the year, generic medicines rose 10.6 per cent.)

The report also looks at medicines by therapeutic benefit. It examines voluntary compliance undertakings where pharmaceutical companies agree to pay excess revenues back by way of a payment to the Government of Canada and also looks at matters before the courts – where drug companies have filed an application for judicial reviews of the board’s decisions.