A Message From The pCPA | #MBCInTheDark

Our #MBCinthedark campaign aims to bring greater transparency and accountable timelines to decisions made about the health and care of women with MBC. In addition to sharing our petition of 10,000+ signatures and harnessing the support of our community, we’ve been meeting and working with government officials to advocate for change.
Thanks to you, our supporters, the campaign has made significant progress over the past year. The pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance (pCPA) office has taken notice and Senior Manager, Imran Ali, has released a message to the Rethink community. In it, he recognizes the importance of transparency and the need to communicate the most current information related to drug access. We believe through our advocacy the voices and values of women living with MBC are being heard.

But commitments are the first step – we’ll continue to follow and keep you up-to-date as this unfolds.

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We now live in an environment where information is shared at a speed and volume that we could never have imagined even 10 years ago. There is an expectation for information to be available on the internet where anyone, wherever they are in the world can access it minutes after it’s posted. For governments this means that increasingly, transparency is of vital importance.

Speaking on behalf of the Governing Council for the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance (pCPA), I can say that across the country, each jurisdiction of the pCPA is all too aware of the need to communicate the most current information on drug policies, formulary listings and status of drug listings.

The pCPA is unique in that it is an amalgamation of various governments comprised of all 13 provinces and territories, and three federally run drug plans. Its aim is to achieve greater value for publicly funded drug programs and patients through the use of a combined negotiating power.

How a drug eventually comes to be listed on a formulary and ultimately available to the public, can be a confusing process to those not familiar with the industry. Listening to industry and patient groups, we recognized that there was a need for transparency regarding how that negotiation process unfolds. To meet that need and promote a common understanding of the pCPA process, we developed our Brand Process Guidelines.

The guidelines, which were released in June of 2018, are meant to be a guide only and are living documents which will be updated as needed. In addition to the guidelines, we also created FAQs on the guidelines and a Letter of Intent (LOI) template.

The Brand Process Guidelines break down the process, from the time that Health Canada approves a product to how the pCPA, after careful review, makes a decision on whether to move forward with negotiations or not and the steps in-between. Also included is information on the negotiation process and expectations, pCPA timelines and a robust listing of common terms and abbreviations.

Currently, the Brand Process Guidelines are not online, but are expected to be available by the end of October at http://www.canadaspremiers.ca/pan-canadian-pharmaceutical-alliance/.

– Imran Ali, Senior Manager, pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance Office