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Irene Jansen

The worst of both worlds: high drug prices, low R&D - The Globe and Mail - 0 views

www.theglobeandmail.com/...article2324591

drugs research patents spending sustainability

shared by Irene Jansen on 04 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Canadians are among the biggest consumers of pharmaceuticals in the world, the costs for which are also among the highest in the world.
  • And yet, despite these consumption and cost patterns, coupled with patent protection for brand-name pharmaceuticals, Canada lags way behind in the volume of research and development.
  • In exchange for expanded patent protection in 1987 (bringing Canada into conformity with international norms), Canada’s Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies pledged to increase their ratio of R&D to sales to 10 per cent by 1996. These brand-name companies did that, and more. By 1996, the ratio had jumped to 12.3 per cent. The next year, it hit a record 12.7 per cent. The ratio has been declining ever since; it dipped below 10 per cent in 2004 and slumped to 8.2 per cent in 2010.
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  • But their specific commitment ran out in 1996. Worse for them, some of the patents on big blockbuster drugs have begun to expire.
  • So the companies try to rearrange the chemical formulas in products and seek patents for drugs very similar to the ones losing patent protection.
  • prices fall
  • In addition, the PMPRB regulates prices such that patented drug prices can’t grow by more than the consumer price index over a three-year period.
  • When drugs lose their patents, generics replace them – sometimes produced directly by the brand-name companies or under contract, more often by a generic drug company.
  • With prices held down by the PMPRB and patented drugs losing market share, it’s hard to explain why drugs cost so much. Part of it relates to the absurd Canadian system whereby each province negotiates prices; part of it is because drug use overall has skyrocketed; and part of it is tied to these new patents for drugs being not very different from the previously patented ones. Drug expenditures in Canada from 2000 to 2008 grew at twice the growth in the economy (6.4 per cent), faster than anywhere else.
  • While sales rise, R&D declines. The ratio of R&D to sales rose from 2000 to 2008 in France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the United States and Britain, but fell in Canada.
  • Countries with pharmaceutical head offices definitely get more R&D than branch plant countries such as Canada.
  • In some of these countries with much greater R&D, patented drug prices are below those in Canada, meaning that no link exists between research intensity and domestic prices.
  • Canada has the worst of both worlds: high prices, internationally speaking, with a low R&D intensity
  • Brand-name drug companies have been extensive users of the research tax credits on offer from federal governments (augmented sometimes by provincial ones). These have come under assault from two federal studies into Canada’s lagging innovation. It would appear the Harper government is prepared to shake up this credit
  • country is being short-changed relative to what it pays for drugs, how it protects them under patent, and compared with what happens in comparable countries
  • And in case anyone rushes to the defence of generic (off-patent) drug companies, Canadians pay among the highest prices for generic drugs in the world
Govind Rao

Drug prices expected to jump as result of trade deal - Infomart - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|246199|ntgm|20151207|235293114

from heather drug costs trade pharmacare

shared by Govind Rao on 07 Dec 15 - No Cached
  • The Globe and Mail Mon Dec 7 2015
  • The intellectual-property provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement will drive up global drug prices and make it harder to treat diseases in developing countries, Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) says. A month after the final text of the TPP was released, the medical humanitarian organization has completed its analysis of the portions of the massive trade pact that will affect drug costs.
  • Despite changes from earlier leaked versions of the text, there are still serious problems, Judit Rius, MSF's U.S. legal policy adviser, said. "This is catastrophic. This is very negative. The impact is going to be at multiple levels," Ms. Rius said in an interview. "First of all, it is going to delay access to generic competition [for brand-name drugs], which is a proven intervention to reduce the price of medicines."
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  • Ms. Rius said there were six problem areas - from MSF's perspective - in the early leaked versions of the TPP. Three have been eliminated in the final text, although she said some of those were "absurd" in the first place. Among them was a provision that would have made it illegal to oppose a patent before it was granted and another that would have forced governments to allow surgical techniques to be patented. There are three key remaining problem provisions, according to the MSF analysis. One would allow pharmaceutical companies to "evergreen" their product patents, essentially making small changes to a drug's use to extend its protection from competition. Another would extend patent protection if there are delays in regulatory approval of a new product.
  • For generic drug makers, she said, the TPP will create additional legal barriers that will get in the way of making new products, and that will stunt the industry. The TPP will actually raise drug prices, especially in developing countries, she said, and this "will affect our capacity, and the capacity of the ministries of health with whom we work, to scale up treatment programs and reach as many people as needed."
  • More broadly, allowing greater monopoly protection for brand-name drug makers will diminish innovation at other firms, Ms. Rius said. "If you are trying to develop a pediatric formulation of a product, if you are trying to combine different pills into one pill, ... if you are trying to improve a medicine and create a second generation, all of that technology and knowledge is going to be protected by secondary patents." The final text of the sweeping trade pact, which has been in the works for eight years, was released in early November. Canada is one of 12 countries that have negotiated the pact, although it was the former Conservative government that signed on. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government will wait for parliamentary hearings on the TPP before deciding on ratification. Each country has to ratify the agreement before it comes into effect.
  • A third would allow developers of certain advanced drugs - called biologics - to keep their clinical data private for up to eight years. That would make it much tougher for competitors to create similar drugs, or at least delay that from happening. This "data exclusivity" rule would be new for some of the countries that are part of the TPP group, although Canada already has a similar provision in place. Indeed, many of the provisions of the TPP are already part of the Canadian scene, at least in some form, said trade lawyer Larry Herman, of Herman & Associates in Toronto. The former Conservative government had said the TPP was "in line" with Canada's existing patent laws, and this appears to be true from his read of that part of the text, Mr. Herman said.
  • Still, he said, from a global perspective "there is no doubt that the agreement increases patent protection and enhances the monopoly rights of the patent owner." From the perspective of Canada's generic drug industry, the TPP has to be looked at in conjunction with the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the European Union, said Jim Keon, president of the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association.
  • CETA, which has not yet taken effect, would extend patent protection for drugs and cut into the business of Canadian generic drug makers - thus boosting drug costs - Mr. Keon said. But it also contains some specific protection for the generic industry to mitigate that impact. It is not clear yet whether the TPP will allow those mitigating measures to be implemented in Canada, he said. And because of the immense complexity of the TPP, "you've got all sorts of potential for misinterpretation here," Mr. Keon added.
Govind Rao

Experts raise alarm over drug prices; Regulators might be forced to intervene as a tren... - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|246199|ntgm|20150928|230202279

from heather pharmacare drugs costs

shared by Govind Rao on 28 Sep 15 - No Cached
  • The Globe and Mail Mon Sep 28 2015
  • Canadian regulators may be forced to create new rules to stop pharmaceutical companies from slapping exorbitant prices on prescription drugs and expecting governments and consumers to foot the bill, say several healthpolicy experts. The growing problem of high drug prices reached a boiling point last week after reports of overnight price hikes for old drugs with expired patents. In one case, Turing Pharmaceuticals raised the price of Daraprim, used to treat life-threatening infections, to $750 (U.S.) a pill from $13.50.
  • CEO Martin Shkreli defended the move in a New York Times interview by saying, "This isn't the greedy drug company trying to gouge patients; it is us trying to stay in business." The company has since backtracked, saying it will reduce the planned price increase, although it has not indicated by how much. United States-based Rodelis Therapeutics was forced to back down last week in the midst of a public backlash after it raised the price of the decades-old tuberculosis drug cycloserine to $10,800 for 30 pills from $500.
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  • Those two drugs are not widely used in Canada. But they represent a growing problem that affects Canadians: The sudden, inexplicable price increases of older, off-patent medications are part of a global trend that threatens the affordability and accessibility of life-saving medications, according to Steve Morgan, professor of health policy at the University of British Columbia's School of Population and Public Health.
  • "We've seen drug prices go levels we've never conceived of," he said. And the problem isn't confined to older generic drugs. Many new patented brand-name medications are being introduced at prices so high they threaten the sustainability of the health-care system, Dr. Morgan said. When a new drug comes on the market, its manufacturer is given a patent so it can recoup development costs and make a profit.
  • Once the patent expires, generic drug manufacturers can make their own versions at drastically reduced prices. But in the past few years, prices for some oncecheap generic drugs have skyrocketed. Sometimes, the increase is linked to shortages of raw ingredients used to make the medication or problems in the supply chain.
  • But increasingly, companies are making older generics that are no longer being produced or are being made in small quantities. Typically, the drugs aren't prescribed very often, which has allowed the price increases to fly largely under the radar. No one knows exactly how often these huge price hikes occur. Philip Emberley, director of professional affairs at the Canadian Pharmacists Association, said it's relatively rare but that "it seems to be coming up more frequently."
  • The regulations for generic drug prices are mandated by provincial governments, which set price caps based on a percentage of the former patented drug's price. But in cases where there is only one company manufacturing a generic drug - with no branded version to calculate the price - companies are free to charge any amount they want.
  • Canadian experts say they are deeply concerned about affordable access to life-saving medication and that it's time for government action. "We're not dealing here with the next cool widget," said Jillian Kohler, associate professor in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto. "We're dealing here with products that are essential to enhancing the quality of life or even saving lives." Mr. Emberley said rules must be developed to prevent companies from targeting generic drugs for price increases. "There's no regulatory capacity to address this kind of situation," he said.
  • Jeff Connell, vice-president of corporate affairs with the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association says that, over all, the cost of generic drugs in Canada is on the decline and that numerous measures are in place to protect against unfair pricing. UBC's Dr. Morgan said he believes rising generic drug prices are following a trend set by the increasingly exorbitant costs of brand-name patented drugs. It's become increasingly common for drug companies to set high prices for new products, which is putting a strain on provincial drug plans, private insurers and Canadians who must pay out-ofpocket.
  • One of the most frequently cited examples is Soliris, a drug used to treat the rare diseases paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria and atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome. The drug costs up to $700,000 for one year, and patients on it must continue treatment indefinitely to see benefit. Pharmaceutical companies say such prices are a reflection of the research, development and other associated costs required to bring a drug to market.
  • But others, such as Dr. Morgan, argue that drug companies will simply charge what the market will bear. A few hundred thousand dollars for a drug would have been unheard of in the 1990s, but it's now the norm because companies have been allowed to get away with it, he said. "Our notion of what is an exorbitant price has shifted," Dr. Morgan said. "It's an attempt from a manufacturer to seek everything the market will pay for a drug."
Govind Rao

Geist: How a 20-year-old patent application could upend Canada's biggest trade deal | T... - 0 views

www.thestar.com/...anadas_biggest_trade_deal.html

from heather patents drugs trade court

shared by Govind Rao on 06 Aug 14 - No Cached
  • Fri Aug 01 2014
  • In the early 1990s, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly applied for patent protection in Canada for two chemical compounds, olanzapine and atomoxetine. The company had already obtained patents over the compounds, but asserted that it had evidence to support new uses for the compounds that merited further protection. The Canadian patent office granted the patents based on the content in the applications, but they remained subject to challenge.
Govind Rao

How Privatization Degrades Our Daily Lives | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for ... - 0 views

www.commondreams.org/...ation-degrades-our-daily-lives

from heather privatization US

shared by Govind Rao on 24 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • Monday, March 23, 2015
  • byPaul Buchheit
  • Health Care: Markups of 100%....1,000%....100,000% 
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Broadcast Journalist Edward R. Murrow in 1955: Who owns the patent on this vaccine? Polio Researcher Jonas Salk: Well, the people, I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun? We don't hear much of that anymore. The public-minded sentiment of the 1950s, with the sense of wartime cooperation still in the minds of researchers and innovators, has yielded to the neoliberal winner-take-all business model. 
  • In his most recent exposé of the health care industry in the U.S., Steve Brill notes that it's "the only industry in which technological advances have increased costs instead of lowering them." An investigation of fourteen private hospitals by National Nurses United found that they realized a 1,000% markup on their total costs, four times that of public hospitals. Other sources have found that private health insurance administrative costs are 5 to 6 times higher than Medicare administrative costs. Markup reached 100,000% for the pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, which grabbed a patent for a new hepatitis drug and set the pricing to take whatever they could get from desperate American patients.
Govind Rao

Trade pact could affect health costs, privacy - Infomart - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|246471|tost|20150718|225121495

from heather trade

shared by Govind Rao on 21 Jul 15 - No Cached
  • Toronto Star Sat Jul 18 2015
  • The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a proposed trade agreement that encompasses nearly 40 per cent of world GDP, heads to Hawaii later this month for ministerial-level negotiations. According to media reports, this may be the final round of talks, with countries expected to address the remaining contentious issues with their "best offers" in the hope that an agreement can be reached. Canadian coverage of the TPP has centred primarily on U.S. demands for changes to long-standing agricultural market safeguards.
  • With a national election a few months away, the prospect of overhauling some of Canada's biggest business sectors has politicians from all parties waffling on the agreement. Canadian International Trade Minister Ed Fast, who will lead the Canadian delegation, maintains that the government has not agreed to dismantle supply-management protections and that it will only enter into an agreement if the deal is in the best interests of the country. The opposition parties are similarly hesitant to stake out positions on key issues, noting that they cannot judge the TPP until it is concluded and publicly released.
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  • While the agricultural issues may dominate debate, it is only one unresolved issue of many. Indeed, the concerns associated with the agreement go far beyond the supply of products such as milk and chickens. First, a recently leaked version of the intellectual property chapter revealed that Canada would have to make significant changes to its copyright and patent rules. The TPP requires Canada to extend the term of copyright to life of the author plus an additional 70 years. The law is currently set at life of the author plus 50 years, which meets the international standard found in the Berne Convention.
  • The extension in the term of copyright, which has generated fear in other TPP countries such as Japan, New Zealand and Malaysia, would mean that no new works would enter the public domain in Canada for decades. The result would be higher costs for both consumers and educational institutions, with most of the additional royalties flowing out of the country. The deal reportedly also penalizes Canada for its "notice-and-notice" system for claims of infringement on the Internet. The system has been in effect since the start of the year and has been credited with significantly reducing Canadian piracy rates. The Canadian approach differs from that found in the U.S., however, leading to additional demands that Canada establish enforcement provisions targeting Internet providers and search engines.
  • The patent provisions in the TPP have sparked concern from health and access-to-medicines groups around the world. With requirements that would delay entry of generic pharmaceuticals into the market, the TPP threatens to create huge additional health-care costs. In fact, the agreement would also expand the right of pharmaceutical companies to sue governments over national laws, creating the prospect of more lawsuits similar to the $500-million lawsuit launched by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly against the government of Canada. With the media focus on agriculture, the TPP's implications for privacy have also been largely overlooked. Provinces such as British Columbia and Nova Scotia have enacted privacy safeguards in recent years that are designed to keep Canadian data in Canada. These rules have become particularly important in the aftermath of the Edward Snowden surveillance revelations, since the transmission and hosting of personal information outside the country raises genuine privacy concerns.
  • Yet the TPP views such privacy protections as trade barriers and seeks to establish new limits on the ability of countries to restrict the free flow of information across national borders. New rules related to copyright, patents, privacy and investor lawsuits have serious implications for the rights of Canadians, as well as for consumer, health care and education costs. With the TPP in the final stages, Canadians deserve better than canned responses from political parties and a debate limited to the impact of the deal on the agricultural sector. Michael Geist holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. He can be reached at mgeist@uottawa.ca or online at michaelgeist.ca.
Irene Jansen

The Challenges of Improving Hospital Food - 1 views

healthydebate.ca/...hospital-food

food hospital ontario

shared by Irene Jansen on 01 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • Ontario’s hospitals feed patients 3 meals a day, and 2 snacks, on an estimated budget of less than $8 per day per patient , excluding labour costs.
  • Research suggests that hospital food is an important part of the patient experience
  • Anne Marie Males, VP of Patient Experience at Scarborough General Hospitals says “Food service is not considered a key department of most hospitals. It’s a service that it has to be there. A lot of people don’t give it much thought, but when you talk to patients, its amazing how important food is to them.” Males, who is leading the introduction of more fresh and home-cooked foods at the Scarborough General Hospital through a grant from the Ontario Greenbelt Foundation
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  • St. Michael’s Hospital serves 97 different diet types, and has 47 different diets to respond to allergy restrictions
  • Fletcher notes that efforts to add fresh, local foods to the hospital menu meant that the hospital had to engage in conversations and partnerships with suppliers, including farmers and help them learn how to participate in hospital food procurement processes
  • Many hospitals have adopted an approach, known as ‘rethermalization’
  • The “kitchenless” hospital has been described as an innovation that can save hospitals about 20% of food services costs.
  • Companies such as Compass Group and Aramark specialize in food preparation for hospitals at large, off-site industrial kitchens.
  • the Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre located in Northwestern Ontario and serving the needs of primarily First Nations communities was required to have specific legislative authority in order to serve traditional foods, such as game meats and fish, which are non-inspected foods
  • The Scarborough Hospital is also aiming to improve the cultural appropriateness of food services, through their pilot project.
Irene Jansen

CETA is a bad deal for municipalities! Council of Canadians July 2011 - 0 views

canadians.org/...CETA-handbills.pdf

privatization europe fromdelicious

shared by Irene Jansen on 23 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Irene Jansen on 23 Jan 12
     
    CETA and Health Care: Higher drug costs and more privatization The Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) will affect health care in two ways. The first is through EU demands for Canada to change its drug patent system to
Govind Rao

Canadian Medical Association Journal: CETA: A win for Canada or European pharma? - 0 views

www.cmaj.ca/...anada-or-European-pharma.xhtml

from heather ceta drugs cma pharmacare

shared by Govind Rao on 01 Oct 14 - No Cached
  • September 24, 2014
  • A technical summary of CETA released by Canadian trade negotiators in October 2013 revealed the deal's potential to substantially increase drug costs by extending patent protection for new drugs two years beyond the 20 years currently provided, delaying the introduction of lower-cost generic drugs.
  • The deal will also allow drug companies to sue Canada using a legal mechanism known as investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), which relies on private arbitration tribunals rather than domestic courts. This also has the potential to inflict heavy costs. Using ISDS-type provisions in the North American Free Trade Agreement, Eli Lilly sued Canada for $500 million in June 2013 over court rulings invalidating patents on drugs for schizophrenia and hyperactivity.
Govind Rao

Globalization and Health | Full text | CETA and pharmaceuticals: impact of the trade ag... - 0 views

www.globalizationandhealth.com/...30

from heather ceta drugs

shared by Govind Rao on 12 May 14 - No Cached
  • CETA and pharmaceuticals: impact of the trade agreement between Europe and Canada on the costs of prescription drugs Joel Lexchin123* and Marc-André Gagnon4
  • Globalization and Health 2014, 10:30  doi:10.1186/1744-8603-10-30
  • On a per capita basis, Canadian drug costs are already the second highest in the world after the United States and are among the fastest rising in the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development. The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union (EU) and Canada will further exacerbate the rise in costs by: • Committing Canada to creating a new system of patent term restoration thereby delaying entry of generic medicines by up to two years; • Locking in Canada’s current term of data protection, and creating barriers for future governments wanting to reverse it; • Implementing a new right of appeal under the patent linkage system that will create further delays for the entry of generics.
Govind Rao

A minefield for health care - Infomart - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|233683|nxbg|20131019|180989567

from heather trade privatization

shared by Govind Rao on 31 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • NewsToday Sat Oct 19 2013,
  • The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), the negotiation of which is set to conclude this year, could drive research into new drugs and improve access to medicines. Except - it won't, writes Emilio Godoy
  • Patented drugs limit patients' access to public health care
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • "The current health system is reaching its limit," Judit Rius, manager of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders Access Campaign in the United States, told IPS. "It is failing patients with rare diseases, for example." "That's why the TPP could be a tool for promoting health and improving innovation and access, instead of fostering failed, costly systems based on monopolistic patents," she added.
  • The TPP free trade accord went into force between Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore in January 2006. Eight other countries are now negotiating their incorporation: Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the United States and Vietnam.
  • Govind Rao on 31 Oct 13
     
    perhaps we need to reach out to doctors without borders and discuss the negative aspects of this trade agreement
Doug Allan

A true medical marvel: Good hospital food - The Globe and Mail - 1 views

www.theglobeandmail.com/...article6614376

food hospitals

shared by Doug Allan on 30 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • The private-sector contractor providing the meals at Royal Jubilee was scoring poorly on patient surveys.
  • But a new food system that gives patients a restaurant-style menu with dozens of options, along with cooking innovations to improve food quality, has turned around a system renowned for – to be blunt – wretched meals.
  • Today, the amount of food waste has shrunk by 38 per cent.
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  • There are nearly 100 combinations of choices, from appetizers to desserts.
  • Behind the scenes, the technology has changed as well. Meals are assembled on ceramic plates in a cold room where a specialized machine seals each plate with a plastic cover.
  • Each cover has a valve that allows food to cook with steam pressure, a patented system that is also in use in several Ontario hospitals.
  • The plates are then transferred to another refrigerated locker, where workers dressed in fleece vests and toques assemble individual orders. Instead of transporting cooked food from a central kitchen across the 14-hectare Royal Jubilee campus, the food is heated in small pantries that are now located near each ward, in batches of five or six meals at a time, so that it is delivered to the bedside within minutes of cooking.
  • The flavours lean toward the bland
  • The cost to the Vancouver Island Health Authority is an extra $790,000 a year. That works out to about $3 per patient, per day. Mr. Murphy, who has sampled almost every dish, says it is a worthwhile investment. “People are eating.”
  • Doug Allan on 30 Jan 13
     
    Compass apparently has introduced steamplicity into Ontario and BC hospitals 
healthcare88

Private health care a big mistake - Infomart - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|242663|cbpo|20161015|258398912

Day privatization court

shared by healthcare88 on 17 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • Sat Oct 15 2016
  • While I must seriously disagree with Dr. Harry Pollett's letter to the editor in the Cape Breton Post ("Doctor offers support for private health care," Sept. 30), I do thank him for raising the issue of a parallel health system, i.e. a private-for-profit system. It came as no surprise that the Fraser Institute was referenced as supportive of such a system. Their idea of downloading health care innovation on individual provinces and territories as a way to "set the provinces free" begs the question, "free from what?" As pointed out in the Cape Breton Post of the same day, Canada's premiers, while pleading with the federal government to meet with them to collaborate on health care, tell us that impending changes, set to be implemented next year, will cost the provinces as much as a billion dollars. Innovating while being cut to the bone may be difficult.
  • And a "private-for-profit" system will get their specialists from where? With the losses we have already experienced, I'm not sure we have many more to give. And should Dr. Brian Day and his cohorts be successful and able to provide quick fixes to "suitable patients" who can afford their service for knees, hips and the like, I would suggest that wait times for those unable to pay will be even longer with the loss of specialists to private clinics. With the acceptance of "screened" patients, these clinics would almost certainly be extremely profitable, having a big turnover with shorter hospital stays and wait times. All this while leaving the public system to treat patients with more serious illnesses, requiring longer hospital stays, and fewer dollars to work with - the type of care that is costly, but which a caring society considers as essential. Yes, there is waste in our system. When drugs can receive a 20-year patent protection guaranteeing as much as a 1,500 per cent profit margin, when we have people forced to remain in hospital because we have no other facility to meet their needs, and when the one body that could truly help coordinate a national system based on the principles of the Canada Health Act refuses to meet with the provinces and territories, we have duplication, waste and an inability to deal from strength with pharmaceutical companies. We could go on, and I'm sure Dr. Pollett could make additional suggestions.
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  • In his concluding remarks, Canadian Medical Association (CMA) president Dr. Granger Avery posed this question recently at the Canada 2020 Summit: "Is it fair to place the full burden of health care costs on governments?" Does the CMA not realize that we pay for our health care through our taxation system? What we need is a coordinated health system based on the principles of the Canada Health Act with doctor, hospital and drug care available to all Canadians no matter where they live and how much money they have. While Dr. Day may in fact be successful, I for one do not wish him success. My wish is that the people we elect will see the need for leadership in improving a system we can indeed be proud of. Dr. Tom Gaskell
  • Bras d'Or (Past president of the Canadian Association of Retired Teachers)
Irene Jansen

Canada-EU trade deal doesn't protect public health care < CETA, Health care | CUPE - 0 views

cupe.ca/...a-eu-trade-deal-doesnt-protect

trade ceta patents privatization excellent union

shared by Irene Jansen on 12 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • The&nbsp;trade and investment deal being negotiated between Canada and the European Union puts public health care services at risk of privatization
  • The CLC analysis shows how the Canadian government has failed to protect public health care services in three main ways: Canada is relying on unclear language in CETA (and NAFTA and the GATS) that may not cover Medicare, given the privatization that has already crept in to areas of public health care Canada has not negotiated a blanket exemption for Medicare in CETA, and CETA gives private European health corporations the power to challenge any expansion of Medicare, or the end of any health care privatization.
  • if CETA is signed, NAFTA provisions will mean that American corporations will be entitled to the same powers and benefits as European corporations. This effectively ends the&nbsp; minimal protections for public health care negotiated under NAFTA.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Read the CLC backgrounder &nbsp;
Irene Jansen

Growth in drug spending slows in Canada: study - The Globe and Mail - 1 views

www.theglobeandmail.com/...article2421660

drugs spending

shared by Irene Jansen on 08 May 12 - No Cached
  • Total drug costs rose just 4 per cent between 2010 and 2011, the Canadian Institute for Health Information reports.Michael Hunt, director of pharmaceuticals at CIHI, said this is a “far cry” from the double-digit increases that were commonplace through the 1990s and 2000s. In fact, it’s the smallest annual increase since 1985, when national record-keeping began.
  • “Spending is slowing down,” Mr. Hunt said. He cited a number of inter-related factors:* Patent expiration for some blockbuster drugs, such as Lipitor, have resulted in cheaper generic versions being available.* Tough new generic pricing policies; Ontario for example sets the price of generics at 25 per cent of the brand name price, down from 50 per cent.* Policies like generic substitution, where insurance plans cover only the price of the generic, not the brand name drug.* Changing usage patterns – for example, re-thinking how cholesterol-lowering drugs like statins are prescribed.* The number of new drugs brought to market has been falling steadily for the past decade.
  • While spending may be waning, Canadians remain among the most enthusiastic consumers of drugs in the world.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • In fact, only Americans, at $1,147 per capita, spend more on drugs than Canadians, at $890.
  • unlike citizens of most other developed countries, Canadians pay for the majority of their prescription drugs with private insurance or out-of-pocket.
  • About 39 per cent of prescription drug costs are financed by the public sector in Canada, compared to 85 per cent in Britain.
  • Public spending on prescription drugs was $12.1-billion last year, up just 2.2 per cent; private spending was $15.1-billion, up 6.8 per cent.
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