Mr. Speaker, I welcome this opportunity to contribute to tonight's debate on pharmacare and prescription drugs, which play such a vital role in our health care system and the well-being of seniors. I am pleased to address the question from the member for Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot regarding this issue.

Prescription drugs are an increasingly important part of our health care system, helping to prevent and cure disease and save lives. However, Canada's drug spending is not producing all of the benefits that it should. Drug spending in Canada has increased significantly since medicare was first established. Drugs are now the second largest category of spending in health care, ahead of physician services. Canada is paying higher prices for prescription drugs than most other developed countries and these prices limit access to innovative medicines, place a financial burden on patients and mean fewer resources for other areas of the health care system.

Since 2000, drug spending has increased faster in Canada than in all other of the comparator countries, seven other countries against which the Government of Canada benchmarks its prices. At the same time, research and development investment has fallen even further behind. Not only does Canada receive less pharmaceutical research and development investment than any other comparator country, but Canada receives less investment today than it did 30 years ago.

Our government is firmly committed to taking action to lower the cost of prescription drugs. However, before we can turn our attention to the idea of a national pharmacare program, we need to get the foundations in place to support the effective management of pharmaceuticals in this country. That is why our government is showing leadership and a real commitment to engaging provinces and territories on making significant improvements to address the issue. This includes reducing the cost of patented drugs through the modernization of the regulations governing the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board. Amendments to the regulations will give the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board the tools and information needed to protect all Canadians from excessive patented drug prices.

We have also worked to lower drug costs by forming a united front with our provincial and territorial partners to negotiate with the makers of patented drugs to reduce the price of their products. Federal participation in the pan-Canadian pharmaceutical alliance produced savings for provincial and federal governments of over $1 billion in 2017. Health Canada has also launched the regulatory review of drugs and devices initiative. This initiative represents the most significant effort in many years to improve the availability of prescription drugs for Canadians, particularly for drugs used to treat rare diseases. As we know, the availability of medications to treat rare diseases was recently studied by the Standing Committee on Health.

On the topic of a national pharmacare program, the House is aware of the Parliamentary Budget Officer's recent report on this issue, as well as the study completed by the Standing Committee on Health, which was presented to the House in April 2018. We welcome this work, and in response, have followed up by committing, through budget 2018, to the creation of an advisory council on the implementation of national pharmacare, which is chaired by Dr. Eric Hoskins. The council is engaging with Canadians and provincial, territorial and indigenous leaders, as well as experts, stakeholders and patients. It is also conducting a fiscal, economic and social assessment of domestic and international pharmacare models, with the aim of reporting back to the federal government this spring on how best to implement a national pharmacare program.

Pam Goldsmith-Jones

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