Federal and provincial government bureaucracies are taking more than two-and-a-half years on average to approve new prescription drugs, thereby depriving many Canadians of the latest in new medicines, finds a new report from the Fraser Institute.
Canada’s drug approval process involves two separate stages: First, Health Canada must certify a drug is safe and effective, then provincial governments decide if the drug will be reimbursed under their public drug programs. This combination of federal and provincial decision-making creates delays or, more often, deprives patients of access to new medicines.
In the report, the authors suggest two specific policy changes to make new medicines more quickly available to Canadians:
Source: Canadians Waiting More than Two-and-a-Half Years for Governments to Approve New Medicines, Fraser Institute, June 29, 2011.
For text: http://www.fraserinstitute.org/research-news/news/display.aspx?id=17801
For more on Health Issues: http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=16
First published by the National Center for Policy Analysis, United States
FMF Policy Bulletin/ 02 August 2011
