Federal Minister of Health tables the 2017 Annual Report of the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board

OTTAWA, Aug. 22, 2018 /CNW/ - The Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Federal Minister of Health, today tabled the 2017 Annual Report of the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) with the Clerks of the House of Commons and the Senate.

The PMPRB is an independent quasi-judicial body that protects the interests of Canadian consumers by ensuring the prices of patented medicines sold in Canada are not excessive, and provides stakeholders with price, cost, and utilization information to help them make timely and knowledgeable medicine pricing, purchasing, and reimbursement decisions.

The 2017 Annual Report sets out detailed information on the PMPRB's regulatory activities; patentees' compliance with the Board's pricing guidelines; sales and price trends of patented medicines sold in Canada, including international price comparisons, trends in all medicine expenditures, and spending on pharmaceutical research and development.

Quick Facts

• In 2017, Canadian patented medicines prices were lower than prices in Switzerland, Germany and the United States but higher than prices in the UK, France, Italy and Sweden.
• Sales of patented medicines increased in 2017 by 7.6% to $16.8 billion.
• 1,391 patented medicines for human use were reported to the PMPRB, including 80 new medicines.
• The R&D-to-sales ratio of pharmaceutical patentees in Canada was 4.1%, a decrease from 4.4% in 2016.
• There were 122 ongoing investigations into possible excessive patented medicine pricing as of March 31, 2018.
• In 2017, patentees agreed to pay back $35 Million in excess revenues to the Government of Canada through Voluntary Compliance Undertakings entered into with the PMPRB.
• High-cost medicines represent an increasingly significant share of total patented medicine sales, rising steeply from 7.6% in 2006 to a remarkable 41.6% in 2017.

Associated Links
2017 Annual Report of the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB)

SOURCE Patented Medicine Prices Review Board