Among the provisions in a newly tabled bill seeking to introduce a national pharmacare system in Canada is a bulk purchasing strategy for prescription drugs that could help lower costs.
Canada’s innovative pharmaceutical industry association has expressed concern over the federal government’s newly introduced bill that lays the foundation of a universal single-payer pharmacare system and could make it easier to negotiate lower drug prices.
“Moving provinces towards a single-payer system, where drug coverage could be reduced to the lowest common denominator, would limit patient...
A new research ethics review system for multi-site clinical trials in Canada is expected to help improve study start-up times, avoid unnecessary duplication and boost the country’s competitiveness on a global stage.
In this third article of a series on new drug reimbursement recommendations by the HTA body NICE, the Pink Sheet finds that fewer innovative medicines are reimbursed in England than in eight other European nations.
The rolling reimbursement reviews that Canada’s Drug Agency introduced as a pilot scheme to speed up patient access to COVID-19 products can now be used for any drug application. The move to open up the mechanism follows prompts by industry.
England’s NICE has “misclassified” HER2-low metastatic breast cancer as a medium severity disease, say AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo, the co-developers of Enhertu. NICE said it would consider a rapid re-appraisal if the companies offered a “fair price” for the drug.
Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee will consider whether open-label extension data from a randomized trial that failed its primary endpoint, along with a historical control comparison, are enough to support approval in the ultra-rare disease.
Recent ODAC meetings suggest the FDA will expand focus beyond applications with pending approval decisions to refining trial designs and drug labels for competitors.
The agency also should explain the potential consequences for sponsors if enrollment goals are not met, stakeholders say in comments on the DAP draft guidance. Some commenters urged the FDA to apply waiver criteria flexibly, especially for rare diseases.
