The annual report of the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board indicates that manufacturers' total sales of pharmaceuticals reached $11.5 billion in Canada in 2001, a 15% increase over the previous year. In 2001, patented drugs accounted for 65% of total drug sales, compared with 44% in 1995. Their sales increased by 18.9% in 2001, to $7.5 billion.
Drug expenditures continue to be the fastest growing component of health care spending and are estimated to have accounted for 15.2% of total spending in 2001. (Physicians' fees accounted for 13.5%.) Increases in drug spending are affected by factors such as changes in total population, demographics, prices, retail markups, prescribing habits, utilization of drugs per patient, trends in new drug therapies and new diseases.
Overall, prices rose by only 0.1% between 2000 and 2001. This continues a pattern of either negative or very small increases since 1993, according to data compiled for the patented medicine price index (PMPI), which measures the average year-over-year change in the prices of patented drugs sold in Canada. In contrast, the consumer price index increased by 2.6% in 2001; its rate of increase has exceeded the PMPI's rate every year since 1993.
Relative to other countries, Canadian prices have been below the international median since 1994 by levels ranging from 5% to 12%. — Lynda Buske, Associate Director of Research, CMA
Figure.
