After more than 15 years of steady gains, specialty drugs’ share of the total eligible amount plateaued in 2023 — after declining for the first time in 2022.
That’s one of the findings of a report from TELUS Health looking at Canada’s management of prescription drug plans.
Specialty drugs’ share of the eligible amount was 31.2% in 2023, down by more than a percentage point compared to 2021. At the same time, the number of claimants using a specialty drug has slowly edged forward for the past 16 years — though it has yet to reach 2% of all claimants. In 2023, 1.8% of claimants used a specialty medication.
