After a 5-year fight to lower drug prices, Ottawa's pledge quietly falls apart
CBC
The first clue was the timing — late afternoon before a long weekend.
It's a classic move for governments to make controversial announcements when fewer people are paying attention.
So when an innocuous-sounding news release from Health Canada about "proceeding with amendments to the Patented Medicines Regulations" came out at 5 p.m. on April 14, the eve of the Easter holiday, there were few headlines.
But it was breaking news, because the Trudeau government was announcing the end of a five-year fight with the pharmaceutical industry over regulations to lower drug prices.
When the federal health minister explained almost a week later why his government was abandoning reforms that could have saved billions in drug costs, Jean-Yves Duclos cited the industry's needs "for research, development and production capacity."
So what began with a promise to protect Canadians ended with a commitment to support pharmaceutical companies.
The battle laid bare the fault lines between Canada and the global pharmaceutical industry — and pharmacare advocates believe it could be a harbinger of the resistance that might await a national pharmacare plan.
Some of the most passionate opponents were patients, fighting on the side of the industry, lobbying for the right to pay some of the highest drug prices in the world.
And the world was watching. Canada was trying something new to control drug prices, and the outcome might have set an international precedent. That put the global pharmaceutical giants on high alert, experts note.
"Canada would be the first country to put in place some regulation to make sure you can't abuse your pricing power by putting in place regulations based on market size," said Marc-André Gagnon, a political economist with Carleton University's School of Public Policy and Administration.
"This was something super interesting for other countries, but threatening for the global drug industries."
The saga began with a speech to the Economic Club of Canada in 2017, when then-health minister Jane Philpott outlined a suite of regulatory reforms to Canada's drug price agency — the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB).
"Without question, it will have a significant impact on the lives of Canadians. It will lower unacceptably high drug costs," Philpott told the diners, who paid $100 for a seat at the sold-out event.
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