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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Canadians are in a kerfuffle over the Trump administration's preliminary plan to allow Americans to import lower-cost prescription medications from Canada.
The plan was announced July 31 and is part of the administration's long-sought effort to drag down the US's skyrocketing drug prices. But it's a long way from being a reality. Even if the plan does pan out, it will likely be years before regulators review, approve, and scale up efforts to import drugs.
Still, Canadians are infuriated by the idea and already brainstorming ways to toss it down the garburator, according to a report by health-news outlet STAT. Many fear that American importation would exacerbate current drug shortages in Canada.
"You are coming as Americans to poach our drug supply, and I don't have any polite words for that," Amir Attaran of the University of Ottawa told STAT. Prof. Attaran went on to refer to the plan as "deplorable" and "atrociously unethical." "Our drugs are not for you, period."
[...] On Monday, August 12, Canada's Minister of Health Ginette Petitpas Taylor was set to meet with pharmacists, patients, and industry officials to discuss a response to the US plan, according to STAT. Petitpas Taylor has pledged to "ensure there are no adverse effects to the supply or cost of prescription drugs in Canada."
In order to protect Canadians, some advocates and policy experts suggested that Canada could begin controlling the export of pharmaceuticals, pass new laws simply banning exporting drugs meant for Canadians, or impose new tariffs.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 13 2019, @12:15PM (5 children)
We should fix our own mess.
Here's an interesting tool on the books which might bypass Congressional lobbying.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2832948 [ssrn.com]
Basically a way for the govt to bypass drug patents for the general good.
Was used to keep things from getting out of hand until the 70's.
(Or depending on your view to prevent drug innovation until the 70's.)
In the 70's politics changed. No sure why, but there is a pretty good case that we have gone too far in the supporting IP direction.
If drug companies and wall street can't figure out a way to provide world-class competitive prices in the US, then perhaps this law can help them find a way.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday August 13 2019, @01:29PM (4 children)
It's not an either/or situation. It's a balancing act of both.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 13 2019, @03:12PM (3 children)
"It's not an either/or situation. It's a balancing act of both."
Agreed, but balancing a political pendulum is a hard thing to do. Things tend to flip-flop between being stuck in two extremes.
At this point the system appears stuck in the support IP even to the state of extortion.
We need to figure out how to move it back to reasonable without getting stuck in the opposite direction.
Guess that would be the no new drugs because there's no profit in it state?
The good news is that the whole world is not stuck and so a pricing model is available that might be a balance.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday August 14 2019, @03:21AM (2 children)
Not when the drugs are mostly invented here. Right now we have the bloody pendulum trying to be in a quantum superposition of being at both extremes at the same time. The pharmaceutical companies are having to put up with losses from lots of nations who have the socialist notion that they're entitled to shit they haven't earned or paid for and US citizens are having to put up with insane fucking prices because of shitty regulation and the companies wanting to make a profit despite the aforementioned leech-countries.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 14 2019, @05:29AM (1 child)
I doubt that drugs are mostly invented here. At least, truly innovative ones. Quantity does not equal quality, and my understanding is most "innovations" are slight reconfigs and blends. The industry is running off of momentum in this country, enforced by government ip protection. The profits the companies are expecting is what is insane, hence the insane fucking prices where they can get away with it. Do you really think people would stop making medicine if they could "only" make millions instead of billions? We really need to take a long hard look at how companies are allowed to operate.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday August 14 2019, @11:37AM
You doubt incorrectly then. There's a bit of merit in the assumption that many of their drugs are not novel but a majority, not just a plurality, of non-bullshit world pharmaceutical advances still come from the US.
If they could only make millions instead of billions, what do you expect them to pay for researchers, equipment, and materials with? You apparently haven't a single clue how much it costs to bring a new, novel drug from wild-assed guess to market. Nor any concept of how much money is lost into the sink of abject failure of lines of research.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.