Quebec's Health minister has announced a deal on generic drugs.
Gaetan Barrette said the agreement saves the province $1.5-billion over 5 years, with savings being invested in the health care system.
The minister has been holding talks with the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association to lower drug prices.
The agreement is the end product of heated negotiations that had led Barrette threatening to listen to bids from other companies to provide the province’s generic medications.
Barrette said on Sunday that as an agreement had been reached by the July 1 deadline for negotiations, no bids were submitted.
Quebec spends $800 million per year on generic drugs and Barrette said he had hoped to reduce that number.
“This is this lowest price we could pay? Maybe not,” he said.
“But the price we would have paid to have a lower price could have been a loss of jobs.”
The deal is scheduled to take effect in the fall.
-With files from the Canadian Press