Health Canada
www.hc-sc.gc.ca
Common menu bar links
Institutional links
Common Drug Review
This content was archived on June 24, 2013.
Archived Content
Information identified as archived on the Web is for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes. It has not been altered or updated after the date of archiving. Web pages that are archived on the Web are not subject to the Government of Canada Web Standards. As per the Communications Policy of the Government of Canada, you can request alternate formats on the "Contact Us" page.
The Common Drug Review (CDR) is a single process for reviewing new drugs and
providing listing recommendations to participating publicly-funded federal,
provincial and territorial drug benefit plans in Canada. All jurisdictions are
participating except Quebec. This review process will provide more consistent
and rigorous reviews of new prescription drugs, so that public drug benefit
coverage will be directed to the most cost-effective and therapeutically
beneficial drugs. The CDR was established in September 2003, and is managed by
the 
Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH).
The CDR process has two components:
- A systematic review of the available clinical evidence and a review of the pharmacoeconomic evaluation.
- Based on the results of the review, a recommendation is made by the Canadian Expert Drug Advisory Committee (CEDAC) that the drug be listed, not listed, or listed with conditions under participating federal, provincial and territorial drug plans.
Participating drug benefit plans will continue to make individual listing and drug benefit coverage decisions based on a number of considerations, including: the CEDAC recommendation; advice and budget impact information prepared by drug plan staff; and the plan's mandate, priorities and resources. For more information on coverage provided by individual drug benefit programs, including formulary listings, please contact the appropriate drug benefit program, or click on one of the links below.
