HESA Committee Report

COMMON DRUG REVIEW

SUPPLEMENTARY OPINION

Presented by the MP for the Bloc Québécois

Christiane Gagnon (Québec)

Vice-Chair of the Health Committee

Context

• The House of Commons Standing Committee on Health conducted a study of prescription drugs, starting with an assessment of the Common Drug Review (CDR).

• The Committee held hearings from April to May 2007 and heard representatives of federal and provincial authorities, pharmaceutical companies, patients’ rights groups, health-care professionals, researchers and academics, as well as representatives of the CDR.

• The CDR examines the clinical effectiveness and cost effectiveness of new drugs.

• All the public health plans participate in the CDR, except Quebec’s.

• Quebec has its own drug review process, the Medication Council, and is thus not affected by this study.

• The Council functions independently of the Quebec Minister of Health and Social Services and reviews application for inclusion on the drug benefit list, which must be pre-approved by Health Canada. The Council meets three times a year.

• The Council’s duties consist of helping the Minister to update the drug benefit list (the Liste de médicaments du régime général d’assurance médicaments, which includes those drugs covered by the basic prescription drug insurance plan, and the Liste de médicaments-établissements) and encouraging the most effective use of medications.

• The Medication Policy also offers measures to ensure that Quebec pays a fair and reasonable price to subsidize medications.

• Drug insurance is mandatory in Quebec, where two plans co-exist: the public and the private.

• All private plans must at a minimum cover all the drugs on the list of drugs put out by the Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ), including the government’s public insurance plan, which provides basic insurance to people who do not have access to a private plan.

• The Council thus lists the drugs covered by Quebec’s drug insurance plan and by the private plans.

• As mentioned in the Committee’s report, Quebec has its own drug review system and is not subject to the CDR. The recommendations for ways to improve the CDR, including national committees and strategies, do not therefore apply to Quebec.

The Common Drug Review (CDR) does not affect the Quebec system.

The Bloc Québécois’s position:

The Bloc Québécois supports the report’s recommendations:

• because they make certain corrections that will improve the process and reflect the criticisms and observations expressed by many witnesses, including experts, patients’ groups and associations, and the pharmaceutical industry.
• moreover, the Bloc Québécois motion, adopted by the Committee, calling for the Auditor General of Canada to review the mandate, costs, management and effectiveness of the Common Drug Review will surely further add to the analysis of the process.

However, the Committee’s refusal to agree to the Bloc Québécois proposal to add the following paragraph after paragraph 1 on page 1:

o       Whereas Quebec has had its own drug review process, the Medication Council, and its own drug policy, since February 2007, it is agreed that the recommendations for ways to improve the CDR, including national committees, programs, guides, strategies, etc. does not apply to Quebec.

o       Quebec therefore has the right to withdraw without conditions and with full compensation from the CDR and any new national initiatives in this area.

The Bloc Québécois has no other choice than to attach a supplementary opinion to this report.