DIA’s Annual Canadian Meeting: Thinking Globally, Acting Locally for The Well-Being of the Patient

The research-based pharmaceutical industry is driven to produce innovative medicines that will benefit patients. However, regulatory approval of a drug for sale in Canada does not necessarily mean that provincial and territorial governments will fund it. Therefore while ensuring prompt and equitable patient access to innovative medicines is a major concern to key stakeholders, the Canadian pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry is faced with the challenge of having to reconcile the needs of patients to have access to important new treatments, the requirement of the payer to manage scarce resources, and the constraints of the companies that discover these innovations. This session will look at the broad spectrum of the drug approval process from the regulatory, payer (specifically how evidence-based information influences decision makers) and industry perspectives. From the review of new drug submissions to provincial/territorial decision for product listing and everything in between, each of the speakers will discuss their role in making inroads to improve and facilitate access to medicines including non traditional/accelerated pathways, investigational access, and trends in orphan drugs/rare diseases.

Speakers will address this important topic: How can we ensure the continuous access of patients to quality and state-of-the art medicines?