National Post (National Edition)
RESEARCH AND INNOVATION
Sustaining medical innovation takes a collaborative approach
Smallpox once killed 400,000 people per year in Europe. Today, it is eradicated.
HIV once ravaged bodies in an epidemic of unknown cause. Today, it is a long-term chronic illness.
Insulin. Anaesthesia. Antibiotics. Chemotherapy.
Medical innovations have changed Canadians’ lives in countless ways.
Canada’s population is aging and its need for medication is increasing. Today, Canada is one of the world’s leaders when it comes to launching new medicines – but how will we make sure we are paving the way for the next innovation?
Recently, Health Canada proposed changes to drug-price regulations in an effort to ensure medicine prices do not become excessive.
And while all parties agree that measures need to be put in place to keep health-care spending in check, there is an opportunity to ensure that these proposed changes will protect things that Canadians hold dear — like access to the newest innovative medicines.
Continued partnership between Canada’s innovative medicine companies and government will help avoid enacting changes that may not only slow down and limit access to new medicines for Canadians, but may also act as a disincentive to foreign investment in Canada — preliminary estimates put the total financial cost to industry at $26.1 billion, a number that would likely result in loss of jobs and research investment in Canada.
At the end of the day, Canadians expect they will have access to the medicines they need. Not getting access to the best medicines as they become available, being told that despite a treatment existing, they can’t have it, is too high a price to pay.
As discussions around the proposed changes to drug-price regulations move forward it is critical that not only government but Canadians in general understand the potential consequences of these changes and the importance of a collaborative approach to policy — so that ultimately, Canadians are left with a system that ensures they will continue to get access to the life-saving medicines they need.
At the end of the day, Canadians expect they will have access to the medicines they need.