- U.S. Drug Prices Are So High That Canada Wants Other Countries as Reference Points STAT by Ed Silverman–How high are drug prices in the U.S.? So high that the Canadian government may remove the U.S. from its long-standing list of countries that are used as a guide for determining whether prices are excessive. In a proposal issued last week, Health Canada said it wants to overhaul the framework used by the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board, which assesses therapeutic benefits and sets ceiling prices. Right now this is accomplished, in part, by benchmarking prices against what drug makers currently charge in seven other countries — the U.S., France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K.