OTTAWA, June 16, 2003: The Minister of Health, the Honourable Anne McLellan, tabled the 2002 Annual Report of the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board in Parliament.

In 2002, total sales by manufacturers of pharmaceuticals in Canada increased by 13.9% to $13.1 billion. Sales of patented drugs increased by 17.3% to $8.8 billion. Patented drugs now account for 67.4% of total sales, up from 45.0% in 1996.

Dr. Robert G. Elgie, Chairperson of the PMPRB, observed that in 2002, the prices of existing patented drugs, subject to the PMPRB´s Guidelines, fell by 1.2% from 2001. He added however that Canadian prices were 1% higher than the median of foreign prices in 2002. This represents a change from 1995 to 2001 when Canadian prices, on average, were 5% to 12% below median foreign prices.

A total of 94 new patented drug products for human use were reported to the PMPRB in 2002, including 24 New Active Substances. As of March 31, 2003, the prices of 46 products had been found to be within the Guidelines while 12 were under investigation at the end of the year. Pursuant to its transparency initiative, the PMPRB publishes summary reports on its reviews of New Active Substances in its quarterly NEWSletter.

Among the enforcement activities reported by the PMPRB was the Voluntary Compliance Undertaking by Schering Canada Inc. to lower the price of Remicade by approximately 20% effective April 1, 2003, and to offset $7.8 million in excess revenues.

Patentees reported total R&D expenditures of $1.18 billion in 2002, an increase of 11.6% over 2001. The overall R&D-to-sales ratio for all patentees remained at 9.9%, unchanged from 2001. The R&D-to-sales ratio for members of Canada´s Research Based Pharmaceutical Companies, Rx&D, declined from 10.6% in 2001 to 10.0% in 2002.

Dr. Elgie noted that the PMPRB will continue its work on the National Prescription Drug Utilization Information System (NPDUIS) and will work to better co-ordinate the timing of its price review process with other pharmaceutical management programs such as the Common Drug Review (CDR).

As the PMPRB continues work under its Research Agenda in 2003-2004 there will be a continued emphasis on consultation. Looking ahead, the PMPRB will focus its efforts on the Price Guidelines for breakthrough drugs, International Price Comparison guidelines, and the analysis of expenditures by publicly funded drug programs.