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http://umanitoba.ca/outreach/evidencenetwork/archives/16569
Far fewer prescriptions are filled for these specialty drugs than for the blockbuster drugs of the recent past. But the prices of the new treatments are staggering. The average cost per prescription for drugs to treat inflammatory conditions was over $2,000 last year. Many new drugs now cost over $5,000 per prescription. Over a third of drugs currently in development by the pharmaceutical industry are specialty drugs. Thus, niche components of drug spending will likely be significant cost drivers for the foreseeable future. Many of the specialty drugs in the R&D pipeline, like the ones that drove recent spending in Canada, are biologics. Being the products of biological, not chemical, production processes, some of the regulatory and policy tools in place for traditional pharmaceuticals do not readily apply to biologic drugs. Notably, whereas policy makers have over 40 years of experience encouraging the production of generic versions of chemical drugs, they have far less experience doing the same for biologics. The trend toward high-cost, specialty drugs is a global one. But it will require domestic policy responses. Pharmacare policy will need to be revisited to ensure equitable access when truly effective treatments come available. Furthermore, tough but fair drug pricing policy will need to be established to place reasonable constraints on prices charged to treat patients with serious health needs. One thing that seems certain is that the current lull in drug spending in Canada will be short lived. For it will be several years before generic competition brings the costs of specialty drugs down the way it has recently done for the blockbuster drugs of yesteryear. Steve Morgan, PhD is Professor in the School of Population and Public Health and incoming Director of the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, University of British Columbia. Kate Smolina, PhD is a postdoctoral fellow in pharmacoepidemiology and pharmaceutical policy at the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, University of British Columbia.