Data resource profile: PharmaNet, the database for prescription drug dispensing in British Columbia, Canada.

INTRODUCTION

PharmaNet is a drug information system established in late 1995 for administrative purposes and to improve patient safety in the Canadian province of British Columbia (BC). PharmaNet contains almost 30 years of data on all prescription drugs and some medical supplies dispensed at outpatient pharmacies in BC.

METHODS

Developed and maintained by the BC Ministry of Health, PharmaNet supports drug dispensing and helps monitor medication use. It also facilitates claims related to PharmaCare, a public programme assisting BC residents in paying for prescription medications, medical supplies, and devices. Outpatient pharmacists are required to submit information to PharmaNet for every prescription dispensed regardless of the payer.

RESULTS

Data are considered to be complete and valid from January 1st, 1996. As of December 2025, PharmaNet contained over 1.8 billion records and more than 75 million new records are added annually. Each record represents a dispensation and includes over 80 variables capturing patient demographics (e.g., age and sex), drug dispensing (e.g., drug identification number, fill date, and days supply), payment information (e.g., professional fee and dispensing fee), and information pertaining to the prescriber and pharmacy that issued the prescription. Each person is identified by their Personal Health Number, a unique lifelong identifier assigned to each BC resident for accessing healthcare. This also permits linkage with other health datasets, including physician services and hospital records. PharmaNet data can be requested for research purposes through a standard data access process and, once approved, deidentified data are released to a secure remote research environment.

CONCLUSIONS

PharmaNet is a powerful resource for secondary health research. In addition to supporting studies of drug utilisation, it can when linked to other BC administrative databases enable a broad range of health research, including policy evaluation and long-term real-world drug effectiveness and safety. The data have also been used in multi-jurisdictional research through distributed analyses.