Health committee  No, the Canadian Armed Forces have not joined it. About a year ago, Health Canada asked us to evaluate that. The challenge we have is that, because 90% of our medications are procured, we already have a series of contracts in place. As you know, the pCPA process is very secretiv

Health committee  It's a very rough estimate, because we can't get the real values, but for us—because, again, we procure 90% of our medication—the cost savings would definitely not be as big as what Health Canada and Veterans Affairs have seen, because they rely much more on the rebates from the

Health committee  If it's a generic that doesn't work and the brand name works better for the patient, because it's the same molecule, the pharmacist at the base has the authority just to switch it. The policy is that they will use the generic first, but if the generic doesn't work for a specific

Health committee  We use the services of the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health—the CADTH—to assess medications. The agency uses a program called the common drug review, which we are also adopting. Once the program makes a recommendation regarding a drug, it is sent to the CFPTC.

Health committee  No. It was communicated only within the Canadian Forces. In terms of budget cuts, the information is a very useful tool for showing that by providing the service ourselves, we have more control and save much more money. However, so far, these figures have never been made public.

Health committee  Indeed.

Health committee  When it's filled in the military pharmacies, we always go with the cheapest one we can get. If we do have a drug in the contract, whether it's a brand name or generic—because sometimes we get brand name drugs cheaper than generic drugs—our pharmacies are made aware. Centrally, we

Health committee  In the Canadian Armed Forces, our drug formulary is evidence-based, as I mentioned. We do cover the majority of the conditions that would be causing problems for our patients. The case of medicinal marijuana is unique. First of all, it's not considered to be a medication. If we l

Health committee  Of course, I have a bias as a federal organization. We have to sometimes deal with the complexity of the coverage between the different provinces. Our spectrum of care as set out in our P and T committee is that when we look at different drugs we also have to look at what's being

Health committee  I believe the two main points for us are the contracts we have with specific drugs. With the bigger items we have on the list, we negotiate price with the drug companies. Also, the generic policy we have helps us to reduce the price. The way our drug benefit list is designed is

Health committee  Thank you. I'll try to be on time as well. First, thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to appear in front of your committee. By way of introduction, I am Commander Sylvain Grenier, as mentioned before, senior staff officer for pharmacy services in the Canadian Arm