Skip to content

Our Impact

Making Patient Care Affordable in Pharmacies, Hospitals and Clinics

Across the country in our pharmacies, hospitals and clinics generic medicines are dispensed to fill more than 76% of all prescriptions in Canada and only cost 22.3% of the money we spend annually on prescription medicines.

Some of the most prescribed generic medicines are priced at a 90% discount off the price of the brand-name drug. That means we can treat up to 10 patients for the cost of treating one patient with the brand-name version. Every day in Canada, an average of 1.7 million prescriptions are dispensed using generic medicines.

Contribution to our Provincial Healthcare Systems

Savings from 1% Increase in Use of Generics*

Province
Private sector
Public sector
Total
British Columbia
$ 62.7
$ 30.9
$ 93.6
Alberta
$ 55
$ 47
$ 102
Saskatchewan
$ 13.2
$ 13
$ 26.2
Manitoba
$ 15.5
$ 17.1
$ 32.6
Ontario
$ 227.1
$ 182.8
$ 409.9
Quebec
$ 162.4
$ 122
$ 284.4
New Brunswick
$ 18.1
$ 10.1
$ 28.2
Nova Scotia
$ 19.9
$ 11.8
$ 31.7
Prince Edward Island
$ 2.3
$ 1.5
$ 3.8
Newfoundland Labrador
$ 10.6
$ 5.6
$ 16.2
Canada
$ 586.4
$ 441.9
$ 1,028.4
* millions of dollars

Source : IQVIA, 12 months ending December 2023