Table 1.
Canada-to-foreign price ratio comparison (US dollars per unit)*
| Drug and dose, mg | Canada | United States | New Zealand | Sweden | United Kingdom | Germany | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Price | Ratio | Price | Ratio | Price | Ratio | Price | Ratio | Price | Ratio | |
| Amlodipine | |||||||||||
| 5 | 0.238 | 0.012 | 20.67 | 0.032 | 7.52 | 0.057 | 4.18 | 0.053 | 4.46 | 0.142 | 1.68 |
| 10 | 0.353 | 0.016 | 21.71 | 0.050 | 7.12 | 0.074 | 4.79 | 0.058 | 6.06 | 0.158 | 2.23 |
| Atorvastatin | |||||||||||
| 10 | 0.309 | 0.078 | 3.97 | 0.033 | 9.24 | 0.187 | 1.65 | 0.072 | 4.27 | 0.174 | 1.77 |
| 20 | 0.386 | 0.088 | 4.39 | 0.055 | 6.98 | 0.111 | 3.49 | 0.093 | 4.15 | 0.208 | 1.85 |
| 40 | 0.415 | 0.097 | 4.28 | 0.097 | 4.27 | 0.144 | 2.87 | 0.105 | 3.95 | 0.285 | 1.45 |
| 80 | 0.415 | 0.106 | 3.90 | 0.215 | 1.93 | 0.221 | 1.87 | 0.190 | 2.18 | 0.414 | 1.00 |
| Omeprazole | |||||||||||
| 20 | 0.405 | 0.080 | 5.04 | 0.050 | 8.08 | 0.086 | 4.71 | 0.073 | 5.51 | 0.278 | 1.45 |
| Rabeprazole | |||||||||||
| 10 | 0.118 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | 0.193 | 0.61 | 0.281 | 0.42 |
| 20 | 0.237 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | 0.284 | 0.83 | 0.362 | 0.65 |
| Ramipril | |||||||||||
| 1.25 | 0.125 | 0.100 | 1.25 | NA | NA | 0.114 | 1.10 | 0.059 | 2.13 | 0.157 | 0.80 |
| 2.5 | 0.145 | 0.129 | 1.13 | NA | NA | 0.071 | 2.05 | 0.061 | 2.35 | 0.159 | 0.91 |
| 5 | 0.145 | 0.136 | 1.07 | NA | NA | 0.084 | 1.71 | 0.066 | 2.20 | 0.162 | 0.89 |
| 10 | 0.183 | 0.155 | 1.18 | NA | NA | 0.095 | 1.92 | 0.071 | 2.59 | 0.179 | 1.02 |
| Venlafaxine | |||||||||||
| 37.5 ER | 0.162 | 0.084 | 1.93 | 0.540 | 0.30 | 0.217 | 0.75 | 0.069 | 2.35 | 0.398 | 0.41 |
| 75 ER | 0.323 | 0.019 | 16.71 | 0.810 | 0.40 | 0.149 | 2.17 | 0.084 | 3.87 | 0.381 | 0.85 |
| 150 ER | 0.341 | 0.040 | 8.60 | 0.998 | 0.34 | 0.204 | 1.67 | NA | NA | 0.613 | 0.56 |
ER = extended-release, NA = not available or not applicable.
For countries that have approved the same generic drug at more than one price (United States, Sweden, Germany), the price of the cheapest approved supplier was chosen, as this represents the price achievable in that country independent of other considerations (such as contracts given for racial affirmative action in the United States, for which a premium may be charged). As in other studies,10,11 foreign currency prices per unit were converted to US dollars per unit with the Bank of Canada 10-year currency converter27 for 1 April 2013, to allow calculation of the price ratio. Prices presented here have been rounded, but the ratios were calculated using exact prices (in US dollars). Comparisons were based on identical product strengths and formulations; tablets and capsules were considered interchangeable. All 6 generic drugs on the Council of the Federation's list are available internationally, with some lacunae. For rabeprazole, which remains under patent in much of the world, the only countries with a generic comparator were the United Kingdom and Germany. Likewise, some doses (e.g., amlodipine 2.5 mg) were not available to one or more foreign buyers and are therefore not included in this table.