Ontario Public Drug Programs

In September 2004, Canada’s First Ministers directed their Health Ministers to establish a Ministerial Task Force to develop a National Pharmaceuticals Strategy, as part of the 2004 10-Year Plan to Strengthen Health Care. The five priorities of the Strategy are: Real World Safety and Effectiveness, Expensive Drugs for Rare Diseases.

Drug Pricing and Purchasing Strategies (bulk purchasing and potential negotiations), Catastrophic Drug Coverage, and Common Formulary (expansion of CDR).

See New Drug Funding Program

A compound that has not previously been described in the literature or marketed in Canada, or which Health Canada has not previously approved for sale in Canada.

The NDFP is administered by Cancer Care Ontario on behalf of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, and provides about 75% of the overall funding for intravenous cancer drugs. NDFP funding is for new and approved intravenous cancer drugs administered in hospitals. The other 25% is for older drugs approved before the NDFP was created and is covered by the hospitals' budgets.

See Notice of Compliance or Notice of Compliance with Conditions

Non-inferiority studies are designed to show that the effect of a new treatment is not worse than that of another treatment (e.g. an established standard) by more than a specified margin.

The notice that Health Canada provides to manufacturers authorizing them to market a drug, sometimes under specific conditions.

See National Pharmaceutical Strategy