*****INCREASES IN DRUG SPENDING FALLING, CIHI REPORTS *****

Year-to-year increases in drug spending are slowing down, the Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI) said this week in a special report, Drug Expenditure in Canada.

CIHI said total drug expenditures are forecast to have risen 7.2 per cent in 2003, a rate of increase considerably off the 9.7 per cent pace between 1985 and 2001.

Prescribed drugs make up over 80 per cent of drug costs, and the public sector is picking up an increasing share of the tab. In 2003, it is estimated the public sector will pay for 47.2 per cent of the $16 billion spent on prescribed drugs. This is up from 46.3 per cent of $13 billion in 2001.

 

The proportion of prescribed drugs financed by the public sector ranged from 30.8 per cent in P.E.I. to 53.3 per cent in B.C. HE


*****HANSARD HIGHLIGHTS*****