The federal government recently announced new regulations that will have a significant impact on drug pricing in this country. The move was criticized by the Ontario government, patient groups, and the life sciences industry, but it has been welcomed by some commentators who share the federal government’s apparent view that price-fixing comes without other costs or unintended consequences. These new regulations are now being challenged constitutionally by a coalition of life sciences companies.
Harmful consequences of these regulations, unintended or not, are easily foreseen. They had been laid out in detail by this author and others during the government’s consultation process. That consultation, against all evidence, focused solely on price despite clear concerns about limits on Canadians’ access to new drugs and serious potential negative effects on an industry that is Canada’s third-largest source of private research and development investment.
