How much money is spent on cancer drugs in Ontario each year?
In 2007/08, the New Drug Funding Program and Ontario Drug Benefit program, combined, covered more than $275-million in cancer drugs. This number does not include money spent on cancer drugs by hospitals, and private payers such as individuals and personal insurance companies. Spending on cancer drugs will continue to grow in the years to come because of the number of new drugs available and the introduction of very expensive therapies. As well, there is the complexity and intensity of new cancer drugs, and the growing rate of cancer. Over the next 10 years, 728,148 more people in Ontario will be diagnosed with cancer. That means 33.8% more people will have cancer in 2015 than today. However, even with these increases, the province spends less on cancer drugs than it spends on drugs for some other chronic diseases – even though the cost of the drugs for some of these other diseases may be lower, these drugs are much more widely used.
