21 March 2019 - Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government is considering lifting a ban that prevents major pharmacy chains from selling in-house brands of prescription medications, five years after the highest court in the country upheld the prohibition as a legitimate way to help control drug costs.

In a unanimous 2013 ruling, the Supreme Court of Canada agreed with the province’s former Liberal government that letting pharmacy chains put their own trademarks on pills made by other companies – a practice known as private labelling – would help the chains to “circumvent” rules designed to reduce the price of generic drugs.

On 29 October of last year, four months after the Progressive Conservatives were sworn in, a notice was posted to the province’s online regulatory registry that proposed amending two regulations to effectively kill the ban.

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