Prices of generic prescription drugs fall by 25-40%
CBC News | Posted: April 2, 2018 8:35 PM | Last Updated: April 2, 2018
Lower prices expected to save public drug plans up to $3B over next 5 years
As of April 1, the prices of nearly 70 commonly prescribed generic drugs have gone down — in some cases, by 25 to 40 per cent compared to their brand-name equivalents.
Canada's generic drug industry first made the announcement of the price drop back in January, in exchange for suspending open tenders for five years.
Mark Labonte, a pharmacist at West End Medicine Centre in New Westminster, B.C., said the discounts will apply to drugs affecting a variety of ailments.
"Blood pressure, cholesterol, depression — there's some seizure medication [that] went down as well. It's kind of across the whole board," he said.
Discounted drugs triple in number
The rollbacks will more than triple the number of drugs discounted under a previous, similar initiative.
"Ones that were already more commonly prescribed went down already a year or two ago. So, this is kind of the second wave of it, with the second most commonly prescribed ones [now] lowered as well," said Labonte.
"For anyone who has coverage, they probably aren't really going to notice much of a difference — for cash-paying customers, they'll know more."
The lower prices are expected to save public drug plans up to $3 billion over the next five years.
With files from Belle Puri