From Canada East:
Government programs routinely overpay for prescription drugs: auditor
The federal government is spending tens of millions of taxpayer dollars more than necessary for its prescription-drug benefit programs, Auditor-General Sheila Fraser said Tuesday.

The government is the fourth-largest buyer of prescription drugs in the country, behind Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, but doesn't have a policy to buy drugs in bulk or demand generic alternatives to pricier brand names.

On one class of stomach ulcer drug alone, Ottawa could have saved $13 million in 2002-03 had it ensured use of the lowest cost alternative, said the auditor general.