Researchers at the University of British Columbia Centre for Health Services and Policy Research have developed a comprehensive portrait of pharmaceutical spending in Canada -- more than $20 billion by the end of 2005 -- and assembled the results into two first-of-their-kind atlases.

The Canadian Rx Atlas uses IMS Health Canada Inc. data to break down trends in drug spending between 1998 and 2004, and provides detailed depictions of regional variations in spending.

The British Columbia Rx Atlas uses population-wide BC PharmaNet data to offer rich insights into the patterns of drug use and expenditure over the life course, across the province, and over time.

"The CHSPR Rx Atlases give policy makers and practitioners access to visual and intuitive representations of the factors driving pharmaceutical expenditures. This includes price changes, increases in usage, or choices made by doctors and patients when deciding which drug to use to treat a particular condition," says Dr. Steve Morgan, lead researcher on the project.

The Rx Atlases feature over 80 full-colour maps detailing the impact of increased pharmaceutical use, the selection of newer, more expensive drugs, and price changes. They deliberately contain minimal interpretation of findings, focussing instead on making the data as accessible as possible for others' interpretation.

"While this work is step forward in terms of describing what prescription drugs Canadians are spending their money on, we still know frighteningly little about how these drugs are being used and about the sources of cost increases," says Morgan. "These new atlases underscore the importance of national efforts to build data systems for monitoring pharmaceutical utilization, expenditures, and, most importantly, health outcomes."

Key National Findings

• Across Canada, per capita spending on prescription drugs doubled between 1998 and 2004. This was largely due to increases in the volume of drugs being used, and due to the selection of more costly drugs from within drug categories when treating a particular illness.
• By 2004, Cardiovascular and cholesterol drugs account for about 40 per cent of total prescription drug spending in Canada.
• In general, residents of eastern Canada spend more on prescription drugs than those in western Canada. In 2004, per capita spending on the medicines tracked in the Canadian Rx Atlas was $312 in Saskatchewan, while per capita spending in New Brunswick was $486.
• Variation in spending across provinces stems largely from differences in the quantity of prescription drugs being purchased. However, differences in the cost of drugs chosen from within therapeutic categories also added to regional variations. Residents of Ontario and Quebec tended to use more expensive drugs to treat a particular illness than the rest of Canada.

Morgan challenges the federal and provincial governments to invest the equivalent of just one per cent of Canada’s annual drug expenditure in systems to monitor utilization, expenditure, and related health benefits and risks.

"If policy makers and researchers worked together to monitor these factors systematically, the information we collect would help us devise policies that ensure all Canadians receive the right medicines, at the right time, for the right price," he says.

The UBC Centre for Health Services and Policy Research stimulates scientific enquiry into population health and into ways in which health services can best be organized, funded and delivered.

Operating in more than 100 countries, IMS Health is the world's leading provider of information solutions to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries.

Electronic copies of the Canadian Rx Atlas and the British Columbia Rx Atlas are available for download at the CHSPR website: www.chspr.ubc.ca

A limited number of print copies of both atlases are available, please contact enquire@chspr.ubc.ca for more information about obtaining copies.