Timelines
While British Columbia has made strides in access to medications on the public formulary, the province is still behind many other jurisdictions in providing reimbursement for medically necessary and evidence-based medications.
A key issue in access to medicine is the length of time it takes for provinces and territories to list medications on their public drug formularies. On this point, British Columbia comes in last place.
British Columbia PharmaCare takes more time to list medications than any other province in the country. This is a problem. Delaying listing decisions adds long term costs because patients are denied access to medications that will manage and control their diseases.
Full listings1:
- The fastest average time for full listings between March 1, 2006 and February 29, 2008 was in Manitoba: 259 days for 10 products.
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This was followed by:
- Non-Insured Health Benefits: 259 days for nine products.
- Quebec: 260 days for 12 products
- Alberta: 285 days for eight products
- British Columbia took the longest average time for full listings: 878 days for seven drugs.
- The fastest average time for restricted listings was in the Quebec: 322 days for 20 products.
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This was followed by:
- Non-Insured Health Benefits: 388 days for eight drugs
- Ontario: 405 days for nine drugs
- Saskatchewan: 454 days for 15 drugs
- British Columbia took the longest average time for restricted listings: 641 days for 13 products.
- Provincial Reimbursement Advisor (PRA), Vol. February 2008: 66
- Ibid
| Type of Review | BPC Recommendation | BC | AB | ON |
| Generic Drugs | Not articulated | Not articulated | 30 days | 10-12 weeks (non-streamlined multi-source) 6 weeks (streamlined, multi-source) |
| Brand Name Drugs | "Standard Review" of positive CDR review drug — no longer than 90 days "Standard Review" of negative CDR review — no longer than 120 days with a view to defining which special patient populations could receive a potential health benefit from the product in question "Standard Reviews" of non-CDR review product — no longer than 180 days | "Standard Review" — average of 9 months or 270 days | 120 days after completion of CDR | 8-10 weeks (single-source drugs — no information on whether this timeframe in relation to the CDR) |
| Products that require societal and ethical input (special authorization) | The BPC considers this category a "Priority Review" (see next two rows) | 150 days | 30 days* (after drug receives Federal approval) | |
| **Priority Review with a positive CDR Review | No longer than 60 days | Not articulated | Not articulated | |
| **Priority Review with a negative CDR negative review | No longer than 90 days | Not articulated | Not articulated |
* Ontario Rapid Review: CED makes funding recommendations prior to CEDAC for truly innovative drugs
** Priority Review Defined as:
(Top of the Page)
** Priority Review Defined as:
- No existing drug on the Canadian market;
- New product represents a significant improvement in the benefit/risk profile over existing products