CADTH Pharmaceutical Reviews Update — Issue 19

Update for Patients and Communities

Before launching the Procedures for Canada's Drug Agency Reimbursement Reviews, Canada's Drug Agency held a six-week public consultation period during which we received and considered feedback from 80 organizations or individuals, including individual patients and patient groups.

Canada's Drug Agency has created new Guidance for Providing Patient Input that specifically addresses comments and suggestions offered by patient groups during the consultation. Highlights include:

• Broadening the definition of a patient group and outlining patient group eligibility criteria.
• Explaining the value of patient input and providing examples of how it has been used as part of the Canada's Drug Agency review and expert committee deliberations.
• Clarifying what information should be disclosed in the Conflict of Interest declaration, to ensure consistency and transparency.
• Explaining each step of the reimbursement review process and highlighting opportunities and expectations for patient group involvement from beginning to end.
• Reviewing the list of commonly used acronyms to serve as a resource for groups who are navigating the reimbursement review process.

Canada's Drug Agency would like to thank the individual patients and patient groups who participated in the public consultation period. The feedback you provided helped us improve our guidance and make it more relevant and useful to you. Please contact [email protected] if you have suggestions for further guidance.

For more details on the Canada's Drug Agency reimbursement review procedures, please consult the Procedures for Canada's Drug Agency Reimbursement Reviews. The procedures are effective for all applications targeting the April 2021 expert committee meetings.

Canada's Drug Agency Program Updates

1. Provisional Funding Algorithms for Oncology Drugs

Canada's Drug Agency has created a new webpage for provisional funding algorithms for oncology drugs. This page provides background information, links to key documents, instructions on how stakeholders can contribute, and a summary table that will report all active and completed provisional algorithm projects. In addition, Canada's Drug Agency has updated the instructions for patient and clinician involvement to provide guidance on submitting input and feedback on provisional funding algorithms.

2. Naming of Canada's Drug Agency Product Lines

As announced at the Canada's Drug Agency Drug Portfolio Information Session on November 26, 2020, Canada's Drug Agency will be consolidating and simplifying its product lines. As part of these changes, the drug reimbursement review process will simply be called Canada's Drug Agency reimbursement reviews. This change is effective immediately and is reflected in the updated procedural documents, templates, and webpages.

3. Revised Fee Schedule for Canada's Drug Agency Pharmaceutical Reviews

The Fee Schedule for Canada's Drug Agency Pharmaceutical Reviews has been revised to include a record of updates and to reflect the renaming of the Canada's Drug Agency reimbursement review process.