More PMPRB Revisions During Legal Challenges, COVID-19, and an Election

As you may know, the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB), is a quasi-judicial federal agency that calculates the maximum prices of patented medicines. There have been several developments in the past few years, including three delays to the implementation of the PMPRB changes, court decisions questioning their legality, and exposure of a $56,000 targeted campaign against patient communities and patient organizations. We have written reports, letters to decision-makers, and summaries, and created short, animated videos explaining the role of the PMPRB and its changes (https://badgut.org/pmprb-impact-report/).

On July 15, 2021, the PMPRB announced more revisions1 that will significantly affect the availability of patented drugs, including generics. These will have serious consequences to our supply of medicines and to the wellbeing of thousands of Canadians who are currently taking them to treat their health conditions.

This adds on to a growing number of input we have submitted to the PMPRB, which you can read below. We have not yet seen them reflected in PMPRB’s changes.

  • August 31, 2021 – Feedback to the PMPRB on the Change to the Definition of Gap medicines, the references to the comparator countries and the international price tests for Grandfathered medicines and their line extensions
  • June 21, 2021 – Feedback to the PMPRB Guideline Monitoring and Evaluation Plan (GMEP) 2021
  • August 4, 2020 – Feedback to the PMPRB 2020 Draft Guidelines
  • February 14, 2020 – Feedback to the PMPRB 2019 Draft Guidelines, co-authored with the Alliance for Safe Biologic Medicines
  • 2018-2019 (throughout) – Gail Attara, President & Chief Executive Officer of the GI Society, was only one of three patient representatives on the Steering Committee on Modernization of Price Review Process Guidelines.

We also work closely with the Medicine Access Coalition – BC (formerly the Better PharmaCare Coalition) and the Best Medicines Coalition and we have supported their submissions and those of other patient groups as well.

1. Notice and Comment – On the change to the definition of Gap medicines, the references to the comparator countries and the international price tests for Grandfathered medicines and their line extensions. Government of Canada. 2021-08-06. https://www.canada.ca/en/patented-medicine-prices-review/services/consultations/notice-comment-references-comparator-countries.html.