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More than $32 million will be invested over the next three years to help P.E.I. maintain improvements it has made to public prescription drug coverage and reduce costs for Islanders.
The funding will extend the Improving Affordable Access to Prescription Drugs Program, or IAAPD, the federal and P.E.I. governments said in a news release Friday.
The program has been operating in P.E.I. since 2021 and has helped expand the province’s public drug formulary — the list of medications covered by public drug plans — while reducing out-of-pocket costs for residents.
P.E.I. previously received $35 million through the program between 2021-22 and 2025-26. As of March 2025, the program had saved Islanders $13.8 million, according to the release.
Since 2021, IAAPD funding has supported coverage improvements for Islanders, including expanded access to more than 100 medications, such as treatments for cancer and heart disease, the release said.
The program has also reduced copayments for commonly used cardiovascular, diabetes and mental health medications. According to the release, those changes have saved residents more than $9 million, with about 70 per cent of those savings going to seniors.
The funding has also supported coverage for substance-use treatment.
More than 1,200 Islanders have received no-cost treatment for alcohol and opioid use disorders through the province’s Substance Use and Harm Reduction program, according to the release.
The program also expanded coverage of newer second-generation antipsychotic medications at no cost for long-term psychiatric patients through P.E.I.’s Community Mental Health Program.
The release says extending the program will allow P.E.I. to maintain those improvements to public drug coverage.