Canadians fall through cracks without pharmacare: report

From CBC News:
The rising cost of drugs prevents some Canadians from getting the treatments they need, the Canadian Health Coalition says in renewing its call for a national pharmacare plan.

The group held public hearings across the country from October 2007 through last March, with more than 250 Canadians talking about the difficulties faced with the cost, effectiveness or availability of prescription drugs.

Brenda Young of Prince Edward Island told the hearings that she and her husband work hard to support themselves and their two teenage children, but they live paycheque to paycheque.

"When I go for surgery, everything is covered," said Young, who has neurofibromatosis, an inherited condition involving fibre-like growths of the nerves and skin.

"But as soon as I am out of the hospital, there is no money for ongoing drugs or physical therapy.… If the children need prescriptions, I sometimes have to tell them to wait until payday." ...more

Prescription drug program under review

From the Fredericton (NB) Daily Gleaner:
The feds need to chip in to improve access to drugs for those with a serious illness, says New Brunswick's health minister.

Four health charities met with Mike Murphy recently to urge him to introduce a catastrophic drug program for New Brunswick that would provide better coverage for people battling serious illnesses such as cancer, diabetes and arthritis.

Provincial chapters of the Canadian Cancer Society, Heart and Stroke Foundation, Kidney Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Diabetes Association reminded Murphy that New Brunswick is one of only two provinces without a catastrophic drug program.

Murphy said he's hoping to change the way the drug program determines who's eligible for provincial coverage.

"This review will focus on providing drug coverage based on the ability to pay rather than on age or disease, which is now the case with the existing prescription drug program," he said.

"We will complete this review within the next year and we'll then know what is doable and at what cost."

Murphy said he met with health ministers from across the country two months ago and a big part of their discussion was devoted to the National Pharmaceuticals Strategy. ...more

Selling generic drugs in more competitive market could save millions: study

From the Canadian Press:
A more competitive generic drug market could save Canada's health-care system $800 million a year, the Competition Bureau says in a study released Tuesday.

Some of this money could be used to maintain or improve drug plans, reduce premiums or directly fund some pharmacist services, competition commissioner Sheridan Scott said in a Toronto speech.

"Progress is being made to get generic drugs at lower prices," Scott told the Economic Club in Toronto.

"We expect this amount (of savings) will climb significantly over the next three years, as some of the blockbuster brand-name drugs that came on to the market in the 1990s lose their patent protection and generic equivalents appear on the market."

The study, entitled Benefiting from Generic Drug Competition in Canada: The Way Forward, estimates the potential savings at more than $1 billion in coming years if changes are made to how generic drugs are paid for.

"Obtaining these savings, however, requires changes to allow the price Canadians pay for generic drugs to be based on the competitive price of the drug," Scott said. ...more

Cleverer drug buying could save $800M a year, competition czar says

From the Toronto Star:
Canadian taxpayers, consumers and business could save up to $800 million a year if private and public sector plans changed the way they paid for generic drugs, Canada's consumer watchdog says.

Both the private sector and governments could start now using tools that encourage pharmacies to compete more aggressively for their business and ensure they pass on millions in savings they receive from generic drug makers, the competition bureau said.

Such strategies could include using more mail-order pharmacies, shopping around for the lowest drug-dispensing fees and negotiating group rates from preferred pharmacists, federal competition commissioner Sheridan Scott said in prepared notes for a speech to be delivered today.

"We believe Canadians deserve a health system that is safe and effective, but also delivers the maximum possible value to Canadians," Scott said in the notes.

The potential savings from more competitive pricing could climb to over $1 billion a year in coming years as several blockbuster patent drugs lose their patent protection, the federal competition bureau also said in a report issued today. ...more

Health groups call for better drug coverage

From the Miramichi (NB) Leader:
When Ross Costain moved to New Brunswick from Prince Edward Island in April 2006, he went from having provincial health coverage to none at all.

Now he suddenly found himself paying around $759 per month for insulin and other measures he needs to cope with the Type 1 diabetes both he and his daughter Latisha have.

“That’s a house payment,” he said. “That’s a mortgage.”

As it stands, it’s enough medication and equipment to cover a small end table.

That cost includes testing strips, which Costain uses to test his blood sugar levels four times a day, to determine how much insulin his body needs to be injected at that particular moment.

With Latisha, who was diagnosed last September, it’s more complicated.

“I have to check her sugar very often,” he said.

As well, her blood sugar levels can change quickly, sometimes in as little as the 25 minutes it takes to ride the bus to school. ...more

Test strips now covered for people with diabetes who use insulin

From the Charlottetown Guardian:
Islanders who use insulin to manage their diabetes will have assistance in covering the cost of their test strips beginning tomorrow, on World Diabetes Day.

Premier Robert Ghiz and Social Services and Seniors Minister Doug Currie announced today that all Islanders who are dependent on insulin will qualify to receive up to 100 test strips per month, with a monthly co-pay of $11.

The announcement affects close to 2,000 of the nearly 8,000 people with diabetes on P.E.I.

"We are extremely pleased to fulfil the promise this government made to insulin-dependent Islanders in the Throne Speech," said Premier Robert Ghiz. "This announcement is a $1.5 million investment in the health of Islanders."

Nineteen hundred people in Prince Edward Island use insulin and check their blood glucose levels using test strips and monitors. The strips are sold for one dollar each, while the monitors are provided at no charge by manufacturers. ...more

Prescriptions can be difficult to fill around storms

From WWLTV.com (LA):
As people stock up on hurricane supplies, they are finding it may cost more money than they budgeted for.

That's because when it comes to one necessity – medications -- health insurance companies haven't built in a plan for hurricanes.

In Metairie, people crowded a local drug store getting prepared for Gustav.

"People coming in like crazy buying water. We sold 4 pallets of water yesterday and I thought it was going to slow up, but it's moving out as much as we can and batteries," says Greg Ciolino, C's Store Manager

And along with water and batteries, there is another necessity they are hurrying to buy.

"We're here for our medicine and it is the first thing we thought about when the storm was coming," says shopper Paul Clement, Sr. ...more

Medicare not universal without coverage of prescriptions, new CMA head says

From the Globe and Mail:
Canada's medicare system cannot truly be considered universal until it starts providing access to prescription drugs regardless of a patient's ability to pay, the new president of the Canadian Medical Association says.

"If access to diagnosis is universal, why isn't access to drugs?" Robert Ouellet asked yesterday in his inaugural address.

"The current health system is universal only in half-measures. If we were diagnosing the problem, we would say it suffers from hemianopsia" - blindness in half the visual field.

At least 600,000 Canadians - nearly all of them in Atlantic Canada - have no drug coverage at all. Another six million people have inadequate drug coverage - meaning basic treatments for common conditions such as diabetes pose a serious financial hardship.

Canadians spent $20.6-billion on prescription drugs last year, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Dr. Ouellet noted that Quebec is the only province with a universal prescription drug plan and urged other provinces to follow suit. ...more

NBA star Nash challenges Ontario gov't

From the Windsor (ON) Star:
Canadian basketball superstar Steve Nash is appealing to the Ontario government to fund expensive treatment for Hunter syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that's debilitating a 12-year-old Tecumseh boy.

Nash, a Victoria, B.C., native who plays in the National Basketball Association for the Phoenix Suns and was twice named the NBA's Most Valuable Player, has recorded a YouTube video urging Queen's Park to fund enzyme replacement therapy for those suffering from Hunter syndrome, or MPS II.

"I hope all Canadians will join me in asking their politicians to fund enzyme replacement therapy for Hunter syndrome in Ontario and across Canada," Nash says in the video, clad in a green T-shirt that reads "Got Hope." ...more

Secret rebates amount to a tax on patients

I usually don't post many opinion pieces, but I thought this one was interesting and worthy of debate. Any comments?

From the Victoria Times Colonist:
The government of British Columbia, in an attempt to save money on its drug purchases, has recently introduced a sole-sourcing strategy in which it receives secret rebates. This strategy is in effect a hidden tax on consumers of those medicines.

The first product for which the government has used this secret-rebate strategy is olanzapine, which is prescribed for various mental disorders including schizophrenia.

Although olanzapine is generically available everywhere else in Canada, the province has struck a deal with Lilly, the manufacturer of the branded version Zyprexa, to make it the only version of olanzapine available in B.C. under PharmaCare. (Virtually everyone in B.C. is a member of PharmaCare, which offers some insurance for drugs, depending on income, age, and total drug expenditure.) ...more

Provinces angry over drug rules

From the Globe and Mail:
Provinces are lashing back at proposed federal regulations that would extend the patent life of a number of popular medications and postpone the introduction of generic copies, a move that could cost drug plans hundreds of millions of dollars.

"Generic drugs here play an important role in the sustainability of the provincial plan, so delays in accessing those generic drugs will have a direct cost impact on the provincial drug plan and also [on] patients who pay for their own drugs," said Johanne Leblanc, a spokeswoman for the New Brunswick government.

New Brunswick has written to the federal government to express its concerns and to urge further consultation, she said.

The federal government has not released a list of which drugs will be affected. But the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association, which represents the country's generic drug manufacturers, has said it could include such popular medications as Viagra, the cholesterol drug Lipitor, the blood-pressure medication Norvasc and the arthritis treatment Celebrex.

New Brunswick's provincial drug program spent almost $14.5-million last year on Lipitor, Norvasc and Celebrex alone, said Ms. Leblanc. ...more

Generic drug prices inflated, committee reports

From the Vancouver Sun:
Inflated prices on generic prescription drugs mean B.C.'s Pharmacare program and drug consumers are paying hundreds of millions of dollars more for medications than they should be each year, says former auditor-general George Morfitt, a member of a committee asked by the provincial government to identify drug funding and approval reforms.

Recommendations of The Report of the Pharmaceutical Task Force were made public Wednesday.

"Canadian prices [on non-brand name, off-patent drugs] are about 40 per cent too high compared [with] other countries," Morfitt said in an interview, referring to the fact that pharmacies receive a 30- to 40-per-cent rebate on bulk purchases of drugs from manufacturers.

However, they don't bother passing on those savings to consumers and Pharmacare.

"Pharmacare is paying artificially high prices," Morfitt said after the

Health Minister George Abbott said the government accepts all the recommendations of the task force and agrees that while British Columbians spend more than $1 billion annually on pharmaceutical products, there are clearly cost savings which have yet to be attained. ...more

Faster, cheaper, better: B.C. health minister promises pharmaceutical overhaul

From the Vancouver Sun:
The provincial government is promising faster drug-approval times and better access to cheaper generic drugs at the pharmacy counter once the recommendations of the Pharmaceutical task force become reality.

Health Minister George Abbott said British Columbians spend, on average, about $1 billion annually on pharmaceuticals.

"Are we getting the best deal? I think not. I think that it's pretty clear particularly in the area of the generics, that we are not getting a good deal," he said in an interview.

Abbott made the comments following an announcement Wednesday that the government would be accepting all the recommendations put forward by the Pharmaceutical task force. ...more

Woman can now buy cancer drug at cost

From the Halifax Chronicle Herald:
A Guysborough County woman will now be able to buy Avastin at cost from an Antigonish hospital, saving about $400 per dose compared to what she originally paid for the cancer drug.

She and her husband hope others will get the same benefits and that Nova Scotia will eventually pay for the pricey treatment.

Marlene George, 47, was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer a year ago and has been taking Avastin and having chemotherapy for 10 months.

Her husband Blair George said that in getting the drug at cost they’ve won a battle but not the war.

"We’re not special people here," he said Friday. "This has got to be something for everybody for the short term, and in the long term, my fight is for the government to pay for it."

The late Jim Connors, a lawyer, former Dartmouth city councillor and cancer patient, led a strong lobby urging the province to fund the colorectal cancer treatment which he could afford but others could not. ...more

When an orphan drug is a patient's only hope

From the Globe and Mail:
Denise Halpenny's biggest fear is losing use of her left hand when she quits taking the drug for multiple sclerosis that she can no longer afford.

She and her husband Scott, a high school teacher, have struggled with the possibility. They've decided that if her hand goes, the mother of three will have to leave their family home here and move into a long-term care facility.

Multiple sclerosis, which struck Halpenny in 1986, has already robbed her of her ability to walk and taken away use of her right arm.

"Things will change dramatically for me," she said, fighting to hold back tears.

What frustrates the 49-year-old as much as the disease are bureaucratic rules that mean she has to come up with the money for the drug Zenapax, although the cost is equivalent to other MS drugs that are covered by the province. ...more

Druggist takes on province

From the Toronto Star:
Toronto pharmacist Chaim Wrightman took his fight with the Ontario health ministry to Superior Court yesterday, in a case with potential impact on how the elderly receive medication.

The battle started over pill packs, those cases with individual compartments for medication prescribed by a doctor and divided by the pharmacist into daily and weekly doses. In Ontario, most users of the packs are covered under the Ontario Drug Benefit Program.

While the battle started over pill packs, it has now escalated into a fight over the pharmacist's right to bill under the massive drug benefit plan that costs Ontario $3 billion a year.

Wrightman had wanted to keep dispensing the packs and being paid for it. The Ontario government first tried to stop him in 2007 by ordering him to reimburse $250,000 in dispensing fees on pill packs over seven years. ...more

MD: ‘So far, so good’ on Pharmacare

From the Halifax Chronicle Herald:
A Halifax doctor says the province’s month-old family Pharmacare program has helped some of her patients get the drugs they need.

"So far, so good," rheumatologist Dr. Dianne Mosher said Wednesday.

Nova Scotia has the highest prevalence of arthritis in Canada.

Earlier this year, Arthritis Consumer Experts, a national education organization for people with the inflammatory joint disease, gave the province a C-minus grade for access to medically necessary treatments.

But the family drug program, which began March 1, is meant to help the 30 per cent of Nova Scotians who have no private drug insurance afford the medications they need. ...more

Dying for drugs

From the Charlottetown (PEI) Guardian:
Many sick Islanders are paying a very heavy price for poor provincial drug coverage — some the ultimate one.

P.E.I. drug programs only cover a small portion of the population: seniors, low-income families and those with one of the province’s “selected diseases.’’

There is a large gap of people, notably many that fall between the ages of 40 and early 60s, that don’t qualify for any of the drug programs, says Pat Crawford, pharmacy consultant with the Department of Health and Social Services and Seniors.

Many sick Islanders, Crawford said, likely make the decision not to take a helpful medication because they have insufficient coverage or none at all.

Asked about the potential fallout, he said: “They can get sicker.’’

And even die more quickly?

“That is correct — and that is likely happening now,’’ he said. ...more

N.S. premier encourages residents to enrol in new prescription drug plan

From the Amherst (NS) Daily News:
Nova Scotians living without prescription drug coverage are being encouraged to enrol in a provincial plan at no cost.

Rodney MacDonald launched the family pharmacare program Monday.

Individuals and their families are invited to enrol in the universal drug plan with no premiums or fees.

The program will cap annual out-of-pocket costs for eligible drugs at a percentage of a family’s income.

For example, a family of four with combined income of $25,000 and annual drug costs of $1,000, will only have to pay $440 through family pharmacare coverage. ...more

Pharmacare to cover 120 more generic drugs

From the Winnipeg Free Press:
The Manitoba government will add 120 new generic drugs to be covered under Manitoba's Pharmacare Program , Health Minister Theresa Oswald said Thursday.

The decision, effective March 19, means the province will save about $4 million a year as these generic drugs will replace more costly prescription medication. The province already covers more than 1,950 drugs under the Pharmacare system. For a complete list of approved drugs go to www.gov.mb.ca/health/mdbif/.

Pharmacare assists patients with the cost of prescription drugs by covering all bills for them after an income-based deductible.

In a release Oswald said the generic drug cost savings are substantial. For example, generic blood pressure medication Ramipril costs about half as much as prescription drug Altace; Altace costs about $33.60 a month while Ramipril only $19.95.

Tory health critic Kelvin Goertzen said the province could save even more money be creating a speedier approval process for generic drugs -- drugs already approved by Health Canada. ...more