Drugs are delisted from the non-insured health benefits, NIHB, drug benefit list when:
(a) the drug has been discontinued from the Canadian market; new products possessing clearly demonstrated therapeutic and safety advantages or improvements have been listed; new toxicity data shift the risk-benefit ratio to make the continued listing of the product inappropriate; new information demonstrates that the product does not have the anticipated therapeutic benefit; the purchase cost is disproportionate to the benefits provided; and, the drug has a high potential for misuse or abuse.
(b) The NIHB program was established to assist in addressing the poor health status of first nations and Inuit people. Where the provinces/territories have not specifically excluded first nations and Inuit from drug plans and programs, AIDS, Methadone, the program does co-ordinate the funding.
(c) The provision of drug benefits to first nations and Inuit groups, as stated in the 1979 Indian health policy, is a shared responsibility between the federal, provincial, territorial governments and first nations and Inuit. The provinces and territories, through their drug plans, ensure access for provincial residents. The NIHB program meets that responsibility for first nations and Inuit people. We work closely with the provincial and territorial drugs plans in the listing of benefits, and through activities such as the common drug review announced by the premiers in January 2002. In doing so the premiers directed their health ministers to develop common recommendations for the approval of all new drugs to be covered under federal, provincial and territorial plans by the end of August 2002.