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Fair Drug Prices for Ontarians New Initiatives to Improve Accountability and Transparency in Drug System Recently, our government announced some important reforms to the prescription drug system that lower the cost of generic drugs for all Ontarians. These changes will allow us to improve patient care and increase funding to the health care system as a whole.

Pharmaceuticals are essential to our health care system – they prevent unnecessary surgeries, lessen the impact of injury, and treat disease. To access this care, we rely on pharmacists. Pharmacists play a key role in the delivery of health care in our community, providing essential care, support and advice on a daily basis. These reforms will ensure that pharmacists are compensated directly for the services they provide.

The reality is that right now Ontario is simply paying too much for our generic prescription drugs. Our prices are much higher than in most other countries around the world – in certain cases more than five times what some US states pay. One of our proposed changes is to eliminate the “professional allowances” that generic drug companies pay pharmacies to stock their products. Generic manufacturers indicated paying more than $750 million in professional allowances to Ontario pharmacies based on last year’s reporting period. Ministry audits uncovered that the system of professional allowances has also been open to abuse by some pharmacies and wholesalers.

By eliminating professional allowances, we would lower the cost of generic drugs by at least 50 per cent for Ontario’s public drug programs, employer drug plans and for people who pay for prescription drugs out of their own pockets. As a result, taxpayers, employers and ordinary Ontarians would save millions of dollars. This means that private insurers can lower their premiums, making your health insurance more affordable. It is for these reasons that groups including the Ontario Federation of Labour, the Ontario Hospital Association, the Ontario Teachers Insurance Plan and the Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP), an advocacy group for Canadian seniors, support the reforms.

To better understand how drug prices work, please refer to the illustration below.

We value the services our pharmacists provide for Ontarians. That is why we will immediately raise the dispensing fee for drugs and will move forward with a new $100 million fund that would compensate pharmacists directly for additional clinical services they provide.

These reforms are about offering Ontarians more drugs and enabling pharmacists to provide more high-quality health care. So far, the changes we made in 2006 to the drug system in Ontario have resulted in over $1 billion in savings. This is a billion dollars that have been reinvested in the system, allowing us to add 97 new brand name, 53 new generic, and 38 new cancer drugs to our formulary. This is a billion dollars that we were able to use to hire more doctors and nurses, build hospitals, and perform more surgeries.

We want to continue the good work we have already started and give Ontarians a more accessible, open and fair health care system. These reforms will increase your access to affordable drugs and improve health care services.

Together we are building a healthier Ottawa Centre!
Sign the Petition: Fair Drug Prices for All Ontarians

The Truth About Drug Prices