Thank you, Madam.
I can answer that question. First of all, the role of the PMPRB is to protect Canadian consumers from excessive prices. The meaning of the word “excessive” is poorly understood by the public because drug companies will tell you—as they no doubt did last time they appeared before you—that they spend a considerable amount of money on R&D. Our role, however, is to define the word “excessive” and we do that in several ways.
Firstly, our scientists analyse all of the clinical studies done on a drug. We ask them to identify therapeutic comparators, beginning with comparators in Canada, and if that is not possible, those in seven countries, for example the United States, Great Britain, France and so forth. We compare prices. A price is deemed excessive if it is much higher than the price of these comparators.
The public only looks at the excessive price. It thinks the price is high, but it may not be aware, however, that a particular drug is the only one that can treat a particular illness.
There are different categories of drugs. A drug that is the only available treatment for a particular illness would be a category 2 drug, meaning that its benefits are recognized as being much greater than those of its comparators. This fact justifies charging a much higher price for the drug.