On February 27, 2025, the governments of Canada and of the Province of Manitoba announced the first-ever national pharmacare funding agreement. The two governments also announced a funding agreement under the National Strategy for Drugs for Rare Diseases.

Pharmacare Agreement

As we reported, An Act respecting pharmacare (the Pharmacare Act) came into force on October 10, 2024. The Pharmacare Act sets out the “foundational principles” for the first phase of a publicly-funded, national, universal, single-payer, first-dollar drug coverage plan for Canada.  In the first phase, the federal Minister of Health (Minister) is to make bilateral agreements with provincial and territorial governments to fund prescription drugs (and related products) for contraception and diabetes (our report here).

The first bilateral agreement has now been announced. Under the agreement, Manitoba will receive more than $219 million over 4 years to cover a range of contraceptives and diabetes medications, devices, and supplies. As part of the agreement, Manitoba will also provide free public coverage of hormone replacement therapy. Manitobans are expected to begin receiving coverage for the majority of the products in June 2025.

Rare Diseases Agreement

In March 2023, the federal government announced a National Strategy for Drugs for Rare Diseases, including up to $1.4 billion of funding over 3 years for the provinces and territories through bilateral agreements (our report here). 

Manitoba is now the seventh province to announce such a bilateral agreement. Under the agreement, the federal government will provide over $48 million to Manitoba over 3 years to improve access to drugs for rare diseases, as well as early diagnosis and screening.  Manitoba has initially elected to cover 5 of the 6 drugs on the common list of new drugs for rare diseases.

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