Senior Economist

Who we are?

The pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance (pCPA) brings together provincial, territorial, and federal governments for the purpose of increasing and managing access to clinically relevant and cost-effective medicines. Through collective negotiations, the pCPA has realized overall savings (as of April 1, 2025) for governments of $3.94 billion annually for brand name drugs and $935 million annually for generic drugs totaling $4.87 billion annually.  The pCPA offers a 100% remote (within Canada) work environment. 
About the role

The senior economist provides expertise and leadership to support the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance (pCPA) decision-making for the planning, coordination, and management of brand negotiations and generic drug assessments using health economic evaluations and other financial analyses to obtain the best possible value for federal, provincial and territorial public drug programs.

Reporting to the manager, Analytics, this role leads projects to support evidence-informed pCPA negotiations and participates in committees involving a range of stakeholders to plan, coordinate and implement negotiation strategies and processes. The senior economist has responsibilities for one or more of the following core analytic activities within the Analytics division:

- Analytical support and leadership on pCPA Negotiations

- Broad pharmaceutical market analyses, encompassing brand, generic, and evolving pharmaceutical markets (such as biosimilars and cell and gene therapies)

- Economic and financial analyses to evaluate drug-related policies and/or organization performance

Senior economists are expected to operate independently to address high-complexity issues and to provide technical leadership for Economists and Analysts in the Analytics division.
Specific deliverables

- Collaborating with the pCPA negotiation team and federal/provincial/territorial partners, develops negotiation strategies, sets mandates and reassess offers/counteroffers in order to achieve value-based negotiation outcomes between the public drug programs and pharmaceutical manufacturers.

- Independently conducts comprehensive analyses (e.g., financial systems, utilization, environmental scans) in which relevant research findings are synthesized and reported to support evidence-informed decision-making on pCPA negotiations.

- Identifies and analyzes internal and external issues such as regulatory issues and contract dependencies that may affect negotiations and, if needed, consider legal implications in order to provide bespoke advice pertaining to pCPA negotiations.

- Conducts targeted re-analysis of cost utility, cost minimization and budget impact analyses, including incorporating confidential pharmaceutical prices and/or alternative assumptions made by manufacturers and/or health technology assessment agencies in order to evaluate its plausibility and impact.

- Critically appraises complex confidential manufacturer price proposals, including contract elements linked to patient and/or utilization and, as required, consider indication-specific elements to quantify its financial impact on individual jurisdictions and nationally across Canada.

- Evaluates the pCPA’s and manufacturer’s strategies for outcome-based offers, including consideration of appropriate valuation, complexity of administration, and pan-Canadian health system impacts.

- Leads and/or supports quantitative research relating to the pharmaceutical ecosystem, including but not limited to, the evaluation of the savings resulting from the pCPA agreements, timeline analysis on drug’s life cycle (i.e., market access and market exclusivity), calculation of rebates when incorporating different contractual elements, and the financial impacts of pharmaceuticals reimbursement policy changes.

- Leads or co-leads all aspects of a negotiations with drug manufacturers on behalf of the pCPA, including: developing mandates, setting objectives, and securing outcomes that