The pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance (pCPA) has launched a stand-alone website. On the site, you will find information about the pCPA, its policies and guidelines, as well as a searchable database on the status of drug negotiations. Please visit and bookmark www.pcpacanada.ca.
The pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance
About
The pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance (pCPA) conducts joint provincial-territorial-federal negotiations for brand name and generic drugs in Canada, to achieve greater value for publicly funded drug programs and patients thanks to the combined negotiating power of participating jurisdictions.
The pCPA objectives are to:
- increase access to clinically effective and cost-effective drug treatment options;
- achieve consistent and lower drug costs for participating jurisdictions;
- reduce duplication of effort and improve use of resources; and
- improve consistency of decisions among participating jurisdictions.
The pCPA member jurisdictions include public drug plans from: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Québec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Non-Insured Health Benefits (NIHB), Correctional Services of Canada (CSC) and Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC).
History
The pCPA was originally established as the pan-Canadian Pricing Alliance in August 2010. It was created by Canada’s Premiers though the Council of the Federation’s Health Care Innovation Working Group.
In 2015, the alliance was formalized with the new name pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance. At that time, Ontario agreed to host the pCPA Office and as such the Office was subject to Ontario rules and regulations. The pCPA Office was then staffed by employees of the Government of Ontario.
An organizational review conducted in 2019 to assess pCPA’s current and future roles recognized the importance of this collaboration of provincial, territorial and federal governments, which has enabled the sharing of resources and expertise to achieve its objectives. It also recommended that the pCPA become a standalone organization to better respond to the demands of the rapidly evolving pharmaceutical landscape. The transition to a standalone organization as well as other changes recommended by the organizational review were anchored in pCPA’s 2022–24 strategic plan. As a result of these collective efforts, the standalone pCPA corporation was established in late 2022, and the transition was completed in 2023.
For more information on the pCPA, please visit pcpacanada.ca.