Events, By Category and Date:
» Go to news mainSome Numbers Behind Canada's Decision to Adopt an Orphan Drug Policy
Herder, M., & Krahn, T.M. (May 2016). Some numbers behind Canada's decision to adopt an orphan drug policy: US orphan drug approvals in Canada, 1997-2012. Healthcare Policy, 11(4), 70-81.
Abstract
We examined whether access to US-approved orphan drugs in Canada has changed between 1997 (when Canada chose not to adopt an orphan drug policy) and 2012 (when Canada reversed its policy decision). Specifically, we looked at two dimensions of access to US-approved orphan drugs in Canada: (1) regulatory access; and (2) temporal access. Whereas only 63% of US-approved orphan drugs were granted regulatory approval in 1997, we found that regulatory access to US-approved orphan drugs in Canada increased to 74% between 1997 and 2012. However, temporal access to orphan drugs is slower in Canada: in a head-on comparison of 40 matched drugs, only two were submitted and four were approved first in Canada; moreover, the mean review time in Canada (423 days) was longer than that in the US (mean = 341 days), a statistically significant difference (t[39] = 2.04, p = 0.048). These results raise questions about what motivated Canada's apparent shift in orphan drug policy.
Recent News
- On what basis did Health Canada approve OxyContin in 1996? A retrospective analysis of regulatory data
- Matthew Herder Resigns from Patented Medicine Prices Review Board
- Permissive regulation: A critical review of the regulatory history of buprenorphine formulations in Canada
- Fair pricing of “old” orphan drugs: considerations for Canada’s orphan drug policy
- Podcast or Perish: Episode 040: Françoise Baylis
- Bioethicist Françoise Baylis asks why humans think 'they can just take everything'
- Killam Prize winners discuss research in Canada
- World‑renowned Dalhousie bioethicist and battery pioneer win prestigious Killam Prize