Canadians continue to pay almost twice as much as Americans for generic prescription drugs, says think tank

Canadians are paying almost twice as much for generic prescription drugs as Americans because government drug plans distort retail prices and prevent manufacturer discounts from being passed on to consumers, concludes a new study released yesterday by the Fraser Institute, Canada’s leading public policy think-tank.

Canadian prices on 64 generic prescription drugs available in both Canada and the United States were 90 per cent higher on average than American prices for the same drugs, according to Canada’s Drug Price Paradox 2010.

The study compares Canadian and American retail prices for an identical group of the most commonly prescribed generic drug products sold in Canada in 2008 (the most recent year for which data are available). Previous editions of the study found that generic prescription drug prices in Canada in 2007 were an average of 112% higher than those in the USA and 115% higher in 2006.