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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated
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To: Alastair McIntosh who wrote (78967)10/19/2004 3:25:58 PM
From: SBHX  Read Replies (2) of 793838
 
The concern in Canada is that the manufactures will try to limit supply of product to Canada if sales to Canadian pharmacies increase substantially and U.S. sales fall.

Market forces alone dictates that the two sources will level out. The canadian market is about 1/10 the size of the US, and until 2001, the canadian federal govt rolled back patent protection for drugs by allowing generics to make the same drugs before the normal 20 year patent expires. It was the EU (protecting their drug companies) not the US that launched a complaint with WTO citing canada's generic drug policy amounted to patent theft. WTO passed their judgment in 2000 favoring the EU.

Canada has now restored the 20 year patent protection to drugs to match the US, and if you don't have a drug plan, you will quickly realize that new prescription drugs have been significantly more expensive than in 2000.

However, there was also a period when the canadian currency was much weaker. It has been up some 25% in the last 6(?) years. Today it is moving rapidly towards parity, and if canadian internet drugs are allowed to proceed unchecked, long before currency parity, you'll suddenly realize canadian drugs are no longer cheaper than US drugs.

No matter which way you look at it, business is about risk and profit, and when the risk outweighs the profit, you see either shoddy manufacturing to cut costs (like the UK flu vaccine) or reduced R&D.

This applies to drug companies and all other technology companies alike.
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