canada_flag  Ottawa, Canada

“CADTH believes that credible, objective evidence should inform every important health care decision.”
– Suzanne McGurn, President and CEO, CADTH

History and Structure

CADTH is Canada’s drug and health technology agency. It was established in 1989 by Canada’s federal, provincial, and territorial governments to be a trusted source of independent information and advice for the country’s publicly funded health care systems. Health administrators and policy experts rely on CADTH to inform their decisions about the life cycle management of the drugs, devices, and services used to prevent, diagnose, and treat medical conditions.

CADTH is governed by a 13-member Board of Directors, composed of an independent chair; a regional distribution of jurisdictional federal, provincial, and territorial representatives; and non-jurisdictional representatives from health systems, academia, and the general public. Directors are elected by the Members of the Corporation, who are Canada’s Federal, Provincial Deputy Ministers of Health for the participating jurisdictions.

CADTH is funded by Canada’s federal, provincial, and territorial governments. It accepts application fees from Industry for its Reimbursement Review and Scientific Advice programs.

CADTH consistently delivers credible scientific evidence and management strategies that enable the appropriate use of health technologies.

Organization Purpose

To power evidence-informed drug and health technology decisions for sustainable, world-class health care for all.

How CADTH Works

CADTH assesses health technologies by appraising the clinical and economic evidence. Assessments may also include reviews of the legal, ethical, social, implementation, and environmental considerations of a health technology, and may incorporate input from experts such as clinicians and patient groups.

CADTH’s core work is grouped into the following evidence product categories:

  • Horizon Scans:Overviews of new or emerging health technologies that have the potential to impact the delivery of care in Canada.
  • Health Technology Reviews:Independent assessments of drugs and other health technologies which may also include recommendations on the appropriate use of the assessed technologies.
  • Reimbursement Reviews: Drug funding recommendations for Canada’s federal, provincial, and territorial public drug programs. Where appropriate, CADTH recommends the appropriate place in therapy for drugs within a therapeutic class.
  • Scientific Advice:Fee-for-service program that provides pharmaceutical companies advice on their early drug development plans from a health technology assessment perspective. Advice helps industry optimize the time to market for new therapies.

Dissemination Activities

CADTH’s reports, recommendations, methodologies, and procedures are publicly available on www.cadth.ca. Final reports and recommendations are also published in the Canadian Journal of Health Technologies – CADTH’s open-access journal that is indexed with PubMed and Google Scholar.

Future Plans

CADTH’s 2022 – 2025 strategic plan Ahead of the Curve: Shaping Future-Ready Health Systems was designed to advance CADTH’s leadership in evidence-informed health care. The plan sets out three strategic pillars as the foundation of CADTH’s work:

  • Anticipate: enable future-ready health care
  • Innovate: unleash the value of technology across its lifespan
  • Transform: catalyze health system change

Agency Information

Country: Canada
Description of population served: National
Population served (mil): 38.25
Current HTA budget (mil USD): $19.5
Permanent staff: over 280
Consultants: variable
Ongoing TA projects: 25-35

Contact information

Director: Suzanne McGurn
Contact person: Suzanne McGurn

Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health
865 Carling Avenue, Suite 600
K1S 5S8 Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Tel: +1 613 226 2553
Fax: +1 613 226 5392
Internet: http://www.cadth.ca
Email: suzanne.mcgurn@cadth.ca