The number-one diabetes category shrank in 2024, due mainly to the exodus of Canadians using Ozempic (semaglutide) off-label for weight management only. Most of those claimants switched to Wegovy, Ozempic’s spin-off drug for weight management—so much so that the weight-management category was the fastest growing in 2024.
These are among the findings of the 2025 Drug Data Trends & National Benchmark report (Drug Trends Report) by TELUS Health, which analyzes the top 10 drug categories by eligible amount and dives deeper into the up-and-coming categories of weight management and migraine. The Drug Trends Report also captures national and regional trends in the overall utilization of private drug plans.
High-cost specialty drugs fuelled growth in six of the categories on the top-10 list. The newest entrant: gastrointestinal conditions. A single biologic drug has steadily pushed the category upwards, moving it from 23rd position in 2015 to 10th in 2024.
All specialty drugs increased their share of the total eligible amount to 32.8 per cent in 2024, after two years of low or no growth. The uptake of lower-priced biosimilar biologics was behind the short-term reprieve in drug-plan spend. By the end of 2024, more than half of claimants requiring a biologic were taking a biosimilar biologic—for several drugs, biosimilar uptake was almost 100 per cent. By contrast in 2019, before the rollout of biosimilar switching policies by public payors, fewer than one in 10 claimants were taking a biosimilar.
This year’s Drug Trends Report also provides a snapshot of the top 10 ultra-high-cost drugs that carry annual treatment costs of at least $100,000. Trikafta (elexacaftor, tezacaftor and ivacaftor) for cystic fibrosis accounted for half of the eligible amount for these top-10 drugs, with an annual treatment cost is $300,000. Altogether, ultra-high-cost drugs accounted for 4 per cent of the total eligible amount in 2024.
Utilization trends
Overall, private plans experienced small to moderate gains in the number of claimants, the average eligible amount per claim and the average eligible amount per claimant.
Six out of 10 plan members made at least one claim in 2024, submitting an average of 12.1 claims each, virtually unchanged from 2023. The average eligible amount per claim increased by 2.4 per cent to $85.52, and the average annual eligible amount per claimant was $1,037.95, up 3.3 per cent from 2023.
Regionally, claims count was a bigger driver of growth in drug-plan spend in Atlantic Canada, Ontario and Western Canada, while the average amount per claim was a bigger driver in Quebec. Regional variations also reflect the influence of public drug plans, resulting in, for example, a higher number of claims per claimant but a lower average amount per claim in Quebec. In Western Canada, the Pharmacare plans in British Columbia and Manitoba and the universal drug plan in Saskatchewan resulted in much lower annual amounts per claimant.
Get details on these trends and more, including generic penetration and a breakdown of utilization by age group, in the 2025 Drug Trends Report.