CCHE Seminar Series: Tracking Canadian Drug Shortages and Their Impact on Public Insurance Plans

Abstract: Drug shortages are a growing concern in Canada and multiple monitoring and policy initiatives have been deployed in recent years to mitigate them. However, while there have been many anecdotal accounts of their effect on patients, the overall impact of drug shortages on payers and patients is yet undocumented. This presentation will provide new evidence on the magnitude of drug shortages in the Canadian ecosystem and on their impact for Canadian public plans and their enrollees.

Dr. Étienne Gaudette is a Senior Economist at the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board and an Assistant Professor (Status) at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. His research interests include health economics, access to care, pharmaceutical pricing policy, cost-effectiveness analysis, health policy simulation, microsimulation methods, and traumatic brain injury. Dr. Gaudette’s research has been featured in health economics journals such as PharmacoEconomics and Value in Health, as well as medical journals such as JAMA Network Open and Medical Care.