The pandemic has been a windfall for Big Pharma. The Trudeau government was planning to roll out a national pharmacare program. Central to that effort was The Patented Medicine Prices Review Board. Tom Walkom writes:
Set up in 1987, the board’s job is to prevent pharmaceutical companies from charging exorbitant prices for new drugs. It does so by comparing prices charged in Canada with those in other countries.
Up to now, the board has compared Canada to high-cost countries like the U.S. and Switzerland. Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have promised to use lower-cost countries, like Australia and Norway, as comparators instead. Until last year, Big Pharma seemed an easy target.Now the drug companies have countries around the world over a barrel:
Nor, it seems, does Ottawa have the power to prevent the European Union from unilaterally interfering with the export of European-made vaccines to Canada.
Some in the EU are calling for such export controls. They argue that since companies like Pfizer and the British firm AstraZeneca profited from EU support, Europeans should be first in line when their vaccines become available — regardless of any commercial deals signed with outsider nations like Canada.Now countries in Europe are fighting over who should get more of the vaccines. And Big Pharma is pushing the Canadian government for tax breaks.
When the Mulroney government sold Connaught Labs decades ago, it left us to the mercy of Big Pharma. The pandemic has taught us that we must manufacture our own medical supplies and vaccines.
Once again, COVID has exposed how fragile our global economy is.
Image: Connaught Fund University Of Toronto
