Common drug review recommendations for orphan drugs in Canada: basis of recommendations and comparison with similar reviews in Quebec, Australia, Scotland and New Zealand

Table 4 Comparison of recommendation rates for the selected drugs in Canada (CDR),^a Quebec (INESSS), Scotland (SMC), Australia (PBAC) and New Zealand (PHARMAC)

Orphan drug status	CDR	INESSS	SMC	PBAC^b	PHARMAC
Number of drugs reviewed (N)	68	55	60	55	40
Drugs with a positive listing recommendation (N(%))	43 (63.2%)	33 (60.0%)	38 (63.3%)	51 (92.7%)^b	27 (67.5%)
Degree of concordance with CDR recommendations (%)	–	69.1%	70.0%	65.5%	62.5%
Kappa coefficient	–	0.3307	0.3541	0.0611	0.1620

^aAbbreviations are: CDR Common Drug Review, INESSS Institut national d’excellence en santé et en services sociaux, SMC Scottish Medicines Consortium, PBAC Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, PHARMAC Pharmaceutical Management Agency
^bEleven drugs were funded through the Life Saving Drugs Program

ISSN: 1750-1172