On November 27, 2018 the BC Ministry of Health changed coverage of glatiramer products, GLATECT™ and COPAXONE®, which demonstrates a shift from previous public drug plan approaches for funding of subsequent entry products (biosimilars) for chronic diseases.   Background   GLATECT™ is the first subsequent entry glatiramer-based treatment available for reimbursement for RRMS in Canada – i.e. a follow on product to Copaxone®. It … Read More →

pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance (pCPA): October 2018 Negotiation Status Update   The pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance Office (pCPAO) has issued the status of brand negotiations as of October 31, 2018. The key highlights since the September update are: 6 new drug products have initiated pCPA negotiations, for a total of 57 active negotiations; 2 negotiations were completed for a total of 216 completed negotiations; and 1 … Read More →

Summary of Expensive Drugs for Rare Diseases (EDRD) Working Group Webinar   Signals Decoded:   Stakeholder consultation is underway on a supplemental process for complex/specialized drugs that builds upon the existing national HTA and reimbursement process to make responsive funding decisions with a focus on non-oncology therapies. The supplemental process is a significant development in EDRD policy and it looks to streamline the evaluation … Read More →

Panel 6: Presidents’ Roundtable   Panel Description: This session brought together general managers from three innovative pharmaceutical companies operating in Canada to explore their insights on how the current reimbursement environment is impacting their company, its decision-making and patient access. Moderator: Barbara Jaszewski Panelists: Peter Brenders, Brian Canestraro and Ben Faienza Barbara Jaszewski: CAHR 201 has been a great way to get a fast … Read More →

Summary of CADTH Drug Portfolio Information Session   Date: Thursday, November 1, 2018 Time: 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm Presenters: Brian O’Rourke, Brent Fraser, Alex Chambers, Trevor Richter, Heather Logan, Tarry Ahuja, Michelle Mujoomdar, Harindra Wijeysundera Purpose: An opportunity for all interested stakeholders to get the latest information about priority initiatives and process changes from CADTH’s pharmaceutical reviews portfolio, including the CADTH Common Drug … Read More →

Panel 5: Patient Support Programs   Panel Description: This session will help participants develop a better understanding of why PSPs are well-suited to support the development of outcomes-based agreements. It will suggest effective ways that PSPs can be developed to support data collection for HTA. Finally, current pCPA perspectives on PSPs and the opportunity for data collection within programs will be explored by this … Read More →

Panel 4: Pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance   Panel Description: This panel will focus on recent events surrounding the pCPA and how public payers believe that PMPRB reform may impact upcoming pCPA negotiations. Moderator: Sherry O’Quinn Panelists: Imran Ali, Jessica Arias and Heather McDonald Sherry O’Quinn: Our focus is on recent events around the pCPA and the pharmaceutical landscape. A lot of this discussion is framed … Read More →

CAPT Conference Workshop: Defining “Decision Grade” Real World Evidence (RWE) and its Role in the Canadian Context: A Design Sprint   On Sunday October 21, 2018, the Canadian Association of Population Therapeutics (CAPT) hosted a full day workshop to discuss recent advances in the dialogue on RWE in Canada from a Regulatory, HTA and Reimbursement perspective. The day was attended by participants invited from … Read More →

Panel 3: Health Technology Assessment   Panel Description: Canada’s centralized HTA agency, CADTH, has recently released a new 3-year strategic plan that marks a shift from its previous vision. Noteworthy is the focus of recommendations on alignment of drug assessment with the priorities of the participating plans over all phases of the technology life cycle. Join us to hear CADTH describe their new strategic … Read More →

Aligned Reviews Between Health Canada (HC) and Health Technology Assessment Organizations (HTAs)   Date: September 26th, 2018 Time: 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM Presenters: Alex Chambers (CADTH), Virginie Landreville (INESSS), M Coyer (HC), and T Richter (CADTH) Purpose: To describe the HC-HTA (CADTH and INESSS) aligned review process in more detail, and discuss any questions regarding this initiative. This initiative aims to improve regulatory … Read More →

Panel 2: Pharmacoeconomics   Panel Description: This panel will focus on the growing influence of pharmacoeconomics (PE) in the Canadian reimbursement process. It will discuss the implications of the revised CADTH PE guidelines on CDR and pCODR reviews. The panellists will also discuss the implications of using PE thresholds for price regulations. In addition, the impact of PE models on pCPA negotiations will also … Read More →

pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance (pCPA): September 2018 Negotiation Status Update   The pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance Office (pCPAO) has issued the status of brand negotiations as of September 30, 2018. This month, MORSE Consulting Inc. provides our standard update along with two charts demonstrating the trends for the average time under consideration and average duration of negotiation for completed and closed files from August 2017 to … Read More →

PMPRB Panel On Tuesday, June 19, 2018, the Canadian Association for Healthcare Reimbursement (CAHR) held the Market Access 201 conference in Toronto. The theme for this conference was “Flying Blind – Navigating Patient Access through Uncertainty” which consisted of five fascinating panels focusing on important topics of interest for pharmaceutical stakeholders in Canada. Over the coming weeks, MORSE will be releasing summaries for each … Read More →