How current is this information?
Most information on this page is updated on an ongoing basis to reflect real-time data as it’s available*. Any data that is updated periodically is noted in the section where it appears.
*Please note that updates about negotiation activity may take 1–2 weeks to be processed.
How to use this dashboard
This dashboard is designed to be explored. Each section includes its own filters and interactive charts. Click on different elements to explore the data from different angles. Your selections update the charts automatically.
- Apply filters using the checkboxes at the top of each section to focus on drug type, disease area, or negotiation pathway.
- Use buttons to toggle between different ways of viewing the data (for example, calendar vs. fiscal year).
- Click on chart elements (such as bars or segments) to focus on a specific category.
- Hover over charts to see detailed data values.
- Use the reset button in each section to clear filters and return to the default view.
Key terms
To help interpret the information on this page, we’ve included descriptions of key terms used here. The explanations reflect how we use the terms in the context of our work.
Active negotiations: The time between the letter of engagement (see under consideration) and the letter of intent (see letter of intent), when negotiation activities are underway for the drug and our negotiation team is meeting with negotiation leads from the manufacturer regularly.
Average: The middle value representing the mathematical mean. It’s calculated by adding all timelines together and dividing by the total number of negotiations. This measure can be influenced by outliers, such as unusually short or long timelines.
Biosimilar drugs: Usually lower-cost versions of biologic drugs that are already available in Canada. See Drugs we negotiate page to learn more.
Business days: Any weekday that is not a statutory holiday, when the pCPA is open for business during regular hours.
Drugs for rare diseases (DRD): Drugs used to treat or manage health conditions that affect a small number of people (generally fewer than 1 in 2,000). These drugs are often very expensive to develop (making them more costly to cover) and may have limited evidence because there are so few patients available to study. These considerations are factored into their HTA reviews and pCPA negotiations.
Estimated savings: An estimate of the financial impact of pCPA negotiations on public drug plans. Savings are calculated based on the difference between a drug’s list price and its negotiated (confidential) price, factoring in expected use.
Health technology assessment (HTA): A structured review of a drug based on its clinical benefits, patient outcomes, cost-effectiveness, and broader system impact. Organizations like Canada’s Drug Agency (CDA-AMC) and the Institut national d’excellence en santé et en services sociaux (INESSS) in Québec use HTAs to make recommendations about whether a drug should be covered by public drug plans, and what conditions should apply. These recommendations inform pCPA negotiations.
Initiation: The first phase in pCPA negotiation processes. In this context, it reflects the time between the publication of a final HTA reimbursement recommendation and the pCPA sending the manufacturer a letter of acknowledgement to confirm that we’re aware a recommendation has been issued, or that one of our expedited negotiation processes has been initiated.
Letter of intent (LOI): A document detailing the negotiated terms and conditions of an agreement between the pCPA and a manufacturer (such as price and patient eligibility) at the end of a successful negotiation.
Median: The middle value when all timelines are ordered from shortest to longest, meaning that half the timelines are shorter and half are longer.
Under consideration: The time between the letter of acknowledgement (see initiation) and the letter of engagement, which we send to manufacturers letting them know that we’ll engage in negotiation for a drug. During this phase we consider the evidence and gather other information to inform the negotiation approach, including the drug’s eligibility for expedited negotiation pathways.
Quarterly snapshot
Get insights into our latest negotiation activity with this breakdown.
The default view provides a real-time count of the current quarter’s negotiation milestones. Adjust the timeline bar to see how many negotiations concluded with a letter of intent (LOI) in previous quarters or time spans — and the types of conditions these drugs treat.
Want more information about the latest negotiation milestones?
The bigger picture
See how our work adds up over time, with this longer-term view of our impact.
The default view shows total successful negotiation outcomes and the resulting savings for public drug plans in Canada since the pCPA was created. Click on a given year to see that year’s numbers.
Note that our savings figures are calculated and shared once per year, while the number of LOIs and percentage of negotiations concluded with agreement is updated on a rolling basis.
Volumes
Track how many files move through key milestones in the public drug reimbursement process over time.
The default view in this section captures the real-time count of negotiations we’ve engaged and concluded so far this fiscal year, and previous annual volumes up to the most recent complete fiscal year.
Use filters to explore data by drug type, disease area, and negotiation pathways, or switch to view the data by calendar year.
We engaged and concluded a record number of negotiations in 2025–26, reflecting a consistently high number of drugs that have been recommended for reimbursement through health technology assessments (HTAs) in recent years. We expect to see similar numbers of recommendations throughout this fiscal year.
Timelines
See how much time drug files typically spend in each stage of the negotiation process, and how our timelines have evolved in recent years.
The default view presents the current day count, in median business days, for each negotiation stage so far for this fiscal year, as well as retrospective timelines for all drugs up to the most recent complete fiscal year.
Use interactive elements to see timelines broken down by drug type, disease area, or negotiation pathway or switch views to see data presented in average business days or by calendar year.
Why use the median for timelines?
We use the median by default because it’s less affected by unusually short or long negotiations, which can skew the average. This provides a more accurate picture of what a typical negotiation timeline looks like.
What are retrospective timelines?
This refers to how we measure and organize data based on the year the negotiation concludes, rather than the year the drug enters the initiation phase. All phases of the negotiation process are still counted, and the total time is the same — we just anchor the timeline at the end point and measure backwards.
Why use retrospective timelines?
A retrospective approach provides a more stable and accurate picture of how long negotiations take by letting us report on full, final timelines for each year.
If we anchored the timeline at the beginning and measured forward, the results for a year that’s already over could continue to shift because longer negotiations and those that start later in the year may carry over to the next year. For example, results for 2025 would continue to change throughout 2026, until every negotiation that started in 2025 was completed.
Do you have questions?
For more information about anything on our performance dashboard, please get in touch.