A recent research carried out by a team of researchers at the University of British Columbia has claimed that Canada could have saved about $1.3 billion per year by adopting Ontario's model for pricing of generic drugs.

British Columbian alone could have saved more than $150 million last year on generic prescription drugs by adopting Ontario’s pricing strategy. The researchers have found that generic drug expenditures in Ontario declined by nearly $200 million. The province had adopted the plan called, Ontario Drug Benefit Plan which effectively reduced the prices of generic drug from about 50% of the cost of brand-name drugs to about 25%.

Similar plans were later adopted by Quebec whereas British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia choose to increase the brand-name prices by 35%.

Law, an Assistant Professor at UBC said, “The policy was really controversial and so we wanted to see as a consequence not only how much Ontario saved as a result but how much other provinces could save if they were to have done the same change”. He said that $1.3-billion is equivalent to spending for all cancer drugs in Canada in a year.