Common Drug Review

The Common Drug Review was established as a national program to streamline drug review timelines, avoid duplication of reviews and reduce red tape. Unfortunately, many provinces, including British Columbia, have not given up their provincial review body.

The Common Drug Review process has greatly increased the length of time it takes to review drugs in Canada, delaying access to important and life saving medications.

As of January 11, 2008 a total of 91 products had completed the full Common Drug Review, with an average total review time of 191 days. This is after Health Canada has deemed a drug safe and before provinces do their own drug reviews.

Before the Common Drug Review was established, the average time to list was:

406 days in Alberta
494 days in Ontario
450 days in BC

Since the Common Drug Review has been in place the average time to list is:

411 days in Alberta
528 days in Ontario
704 days in BC

For BC, the Common Drug Review process has increased the amount of time it takes for drugs to be reviewed by 254 days.

Inconsistency with Common Drug Review recommendations:

While BC was one of the provinces most supportive of the establishment of the Common Drug Review, it has the highest rate of inconsistency when it comes to Common Drug Review recommendations.
Between September 2003 and September 2008, 96 products went through the full review process. British Columbia disagreed with 29% of all recommendations; with 27 negative listing decisions following positive recommendations and 2 positive listing decisions following negative recommendations¹.

Brogan website: http://www.broganinc.com/english/news/current.html#cedac4

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