pCPA Reducing Time to Initiate Negotiations

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 September 2018. Of note:

• Average Time Under Consideration decreased from 6 months in August 2017 to 4 months in September 2018
• Average Duration of Negotiation increased slightly from 5 months in August 2017 to 6 months in September 2018

As a new addition, the MORSE pCPA updates will now include a review of Institut national d’excellence en santé et en services sociaux (INESSS) files which received a Notice to the Minister during the previous month.

The key highlights since the August update are:

• 10 new drug products have initiated pCPA negotiations, for a total of 54 active negotiations;
• 5 negotiations were completed for a total of 214 completed negotiations; and
• 1 negotiation was closed since the last update, for a total of 27 closed negotiations.

Negotiation Initiation

• 10 new drug products have initiated pCPA negotiations since the last update, for a total of 54 active negotiations

*Approximation: Negotiation initiation date assumed to be mid-month for the purposes of the calculation

Signals Decoded:

After peaking in July of this year, both the average time to initiation and average duration of negotiation measures have been trending downward for two consecutive months. With 10 newly initiated files in September, the pCPA has an all-time high of 54 active negotiations, while the number of files under consideration has been reduced to less than 20 for the first time since October 2017.

Negotiations Completed/Closed

• 5 negotiations were completed since the last update, for a total of 214 completed negotiations.

*Approximation: Negotiation initiation and completion date assumed to be mid-month for the purposes of the calculation

• One negotiation was closed since the last update, for a total of 27 closed negotiations.

Signals Decoded:

After more than two years of active negotiations, the pCPA has reached an agreement for Jardiance in patients with high cardiovascular risk – an agreement which presumably included reimbursement of Synjardy which had been under consideration for almost two years. The pCPA has also reached an agreement for Toujeo (a new version of insulin glargine). As Basaglar (biosimilar to Lantus) is widely reimbursed, the pCPA has signaled that the presence of a biosimilar insulin product does not preclude the reimbursement of a new brand product in that space.

Files Under pCPA Consideration

In addition to the monthly updates to the pCPA website, MORSE Consulting tracks the number of products “under pCPA Consideration” which have been reviewed by CADTH but have not yet been initiated for negotiation or closed without negotiations.

• Two new drug products received a CDEC or pERC recommendation or notification to implement in September 2018, for a total of approximately 19 products under pCPA Consideration.

As a new section of the update, MORSE is now providing an update on the files which have been reviewed by INESSS and received a Notice to the Minister during the previous month. Twelve products received an INESSS recommendation in September 2018. *

*Note this does not include generic drug products, or those files which would not comparable to those reviewed by CADTH.

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