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BY MARY BOYD
AND JOEL LEXCHIN
Customer Reviews
There is now a clearer understanding of what Canada has traded in the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA), but it is too early to know what effect it will have on the cost medication. Health coalitions have always argued that health should not be part of any trade agreement. However, trade negotiators and countries continue to include it. In the United States, Mexico and Canada (USMCA), Canada has agreed to extend data protection for organic products from eight to ten years.
RELATED: Outside the NAFTA, with the USMCA: Canada signs a new trade agreement with the United States and Mexico
Biologics are usually expensive drugs made from living cells that need to be injected; otherwise, their large molecules will not be absorbed. They are used to treat autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease and other serious diseases. These are not part of the USMCA data extension.
Data protection is information derived from clinical trials on the safety of drugs and their functioning, which companies compile for approval.
It seems that Canadian negotiators have extended the protection of data on organic products without knowing what impact it would have on prices, as this information has not yet been determined. Experts have no idea what the two-year extension of data protection will mean for the cost of drugs. It depends on the percentage of the market captured by the drug (the range can range from 25% or less to 100%) and the expiration of patent protection before data protection. The additional cost could range from zero to several hundred million dollars.
The Canada-Europe Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) deals with patent protection, the period during which the manufacturer had a monopoly on the sale of the drug before the advent of generic. The additional cost of extending this protection in CETA would be in the order of $ 800 million a year.
The effect of extending USMCA data on our hopes for a universal pharmacare program is not entirely clear. If the price of organic products increases because of the extension of data protection, a universal pharmacare program could be better justified, because the current cost of drugs in Canada is the third highest in the industrialized world and causes many difficulties to many people.
A single payer for pharmaceuticals would mean greater bargaining power and lower drug prices for all Canadians. Experts tell us that the high cost of drugs is already hurting the health of many Canadians. It reinforces our sense of fairness and justice, because a universal drug plan would save lives, improve people's well-being, and save billions of dollars. Why are governments so slow to recognize this and act?
– Mary Boyd, P.E.I. Health Coalition; Joel Lexchin MD, Professor Emeritus, School of Health Policy and Management, Faculty of Health, York University. (The P.E.I. Health Coalition is a member of Trade Justice P.E.I.)
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