Incorporating economic evaluations into decision-making: the Ontario experience

Abstract

The Drug Quality and Therapeutics Committee (DQTC) and the Canadian Expert Drug Assessment Committee (CEDAC) make reimbursement recommendations to publicly funded outpatient drug plans in Ontario and Canada respectively. In this article, the organization and decision-making processes of these committees are described. Issues associated with these committees such as potential biases associated with pharmaceutical company submissions, transparency, restricted access programs, conditional listing, and price negotiation are discussed.