Posted by Michael Wonder on 19 Mar 2020
Low prices won't keep new medicines out of Canada
19 March 2020 - There is no evidence of a link between pricing, research and development, and access to medicine.
Despite what Nigel Rawson and John Adams argue in “Price controls imposed by shortsighted politicians keep new life-saving drugs out” (March 5) there is no evidence of a link between pricing, research and development, and access to medicines.
The Patented Medicine Prices Review Board Annual Report 2017 indicates (Fig. 35) that many comparator countries have lower patented prices than Canada, yet they all have higher levels of R&D spending relative to their patented sales and many have better access to medicines.
