As the rising cost of medicines ripples around the world, a Canadian government advisory panel is recommending the country create an agency to grapple with high drug prices and also develop a national formulary for insurance coverage, but stopped short of saying whether a universal, single-payer system – known as Pharmacare — should be adopted.
Specifically, the panel suggested such an agency would be chartered with evaluating the clinical evidence and cost-effectiveness of prescription medicines, conducting negotiations with manufacturers over prices, overseeing a formulary, and monitoring safety and effectiveness.
“Even in the absence of national Pharmacare, we discovered that there would be significant benefit to consolidating many of the prescription drug-related functions currently being undertaken at various levels of government and in different entities,” the Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare wrote in a brief, but pointed eight-page report released on Wednesday.
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