Ontario Drug Policy Research Network

Ontario Drug Policy Research Network The ODPRN is a network of researchers who provide timely, high quality, drug policy research

The ODPRN has the capacity to conduct research to determine the real-work drug utilization, safety, effectiveness, and costs of drugs on Ontario, and have development partnerships that allow us to engage in cross-provincial comparisons of drug safety and utilization

The ODPRN is comprised of four units:
1. Rapid Response Unit (RRU), whose primary function is to work with policy-makers to efficie

ntly respond to research questons using linked population-level information

2. Stakeholder Advisory Panel (SAP), which collaborates with the RRU in fulfilling policy-maker research requests, as well as addressing their own research questions through traditional academic research

3. The Formulary Modernization Unit (FMU), whose function is to synthesize effectiveness, safety, contextual and econmic data on specific drug classes to generate policy recommendations for updating Ontario's drug formulary

4. The Knowledge Translation Unit (KTU), which disseminates the ODPRN's research findings to target knowledge users and stakeholders, including policy-makers, researchers, clinicians and the public

NEW ODPRN Town Hall report on the growing use of extended-release buprenorphine (Sublocade) as a treatment option for op...
05/22/2026

NEW ODPRN Town Hall report on the growing use of extended-release buprenorphine (Sublocade) as a treatment option for opioid use disorder.

Read the report + listen to the audio clips from 4 of the individuals who shared live during the Town Hall.

Thank you to everyone who attended the event and to those who shared their experiences!

https://odprn.ca/town-halls/sublocade/

05/04/2026

New data reveals that Ozempic has become the largest publicly funded single-drug cost driver in Canada, representing 8.5% total growth of the 9.2% increase in public drug spending in 2024.

Originally developed to treat type 2 diabetes and recently conditionally recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) to treat obesity, Ozempic accounts for $807 million of the total $20.1 billion publicly spent on prescription drugs across Canada.

While Ozempic is the largest single-drug contributor driving growth in public drug spending, high-cost biologics and biosimilars continue to dominate increased public drug spending in Canada.

Check out CIHI’s Pharmaceutical Data Tool for comprehensive monitoring and reporting on public drug spending: https://ow.ly/By6Q50YpJAM

04/28/2026

On April 28, we remember workers who have been killed, injured, or made ill because of their work, and we renew our commitment to prevention.

This includes harms that are often overlooked. In Ontario, a major report found that construction workers are disproportionately impacted by opioid toxicity deaths. These deaths reflect the realities of physically demanding work and injury, ongoing pain, mental health strain, precarious employment, stigma, barriers to care, and exposure to an increasingly toxic unregulated drug supply.

These harms do not exist in isolation. They sit at the intersection of workplace conditions, health systems, and drug-related harms. When workers are injured and left in pain without adequate supports, and when the unregulated drug supply becomes more toxic and unpredictable, the risks grow.

In British Columbia, research is also underway to better understand similar issues in the trades, supported by the BC Trades Council, focusing on substance use-related harm, worker well-being, treatment and support pathways, and evidence-based responses.

If we are serious about worker safety, health, and dignity, we cannot treat these deaths as separate from the conditions workers are living and labouring through.

Read the Ontario research: https://odprn.ca/research/publications/opioids-in-the-construction-industry/

Learn more about drug policy and labour: https://drugpolicy.ca/our-work/labour-and-drug-policy/

In an update from Toronto's Drug Checking Service, they reported “new” opioids circulating in Ontario’s unregulated opio...
04/08/2026

In an update from Toronto's Drug Checking Service, they reported “new” opioids circulating in Ontario’s unregulated opioid supply:
Etodezitramide and cychlorphine

Ontario’s Drug Checking Community and its flagship program, Toronto’s Drug Checking Service, are increasingly detecting a “new” family of non-fentanyl synthetic opioids in Ontario’s unregulated opioid supply: “orphines”.

Learn more at

What's in Toronto's drug supply? Toronto’s Drug Checking Service offers people who use drugs timely and detailed information on the contents of their drugs, helping them to make more informed decisions. This service also shares information on Toronto’s unregulated drug supply to inform those who...

NEW ODPRN study examined trends in safer opioid supply (SOS) initiation among First Nations Peoples with opioid use diso...
03/23/2026

NEW ODPRN study examined trends in safer opioid supply (SOS) initiation among First Nations Peoples with opioid use disorder in Ontario between 2019 and 2023. Uptake increased nearly five-fold over the study period, with similar rates between males and females and the highest rates among those aged 25–44 years. Most initiations occurred among individuals living outside of First Nations communities and in urban areas, highlighting differences in access across regions.

Learn more at https://odprn.ca/research/publications/2026-03-sos-among-first-nations-peoples-in-ontario/

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