CDR/HTA fail on principle: Lessons not learned can still be valuable

In 1990, the government’s Ontario Provincial Inquiry into the Acquisition, Distribution, Dispensing, and Prescribing of Pharmaceutical Medicines in Ontario Inquiry, chaired by Frederick H. Lowy, submitted its report, entitled Prescriptions for Health. Dr. W. Spitzer of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, chaired the Inter-University Working Group, which submitted a paper to the Lowy Commission of Inquiry detailing the group’s views on benefits, risks and costs of prescription drugs and called for a “scientific” basis for evaluating drug policy options over 25 years ago.

The IUWG reported that it was “clear that prescription drugs, if prescribed and used properly, can improve health and reduce expenditures on physician and hospital services.” The Cameron Institute and its associates have produced a number of studies, reports and papers that show Canada did not get this right. This commentary revisits the recommendations made by the IUWG (bold lettering in the section below) and comparing them with current practice.